https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211063174
new media & society
2022, Vol. 24(2) 328­–344
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/14614448211063174
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“The Facebook is a state of
Roma”: Negotiating identities,
building communities, and
belongingness online among
Roma in the Czech Republic
Azeta Hatef 
Emerson College, USA
Abstract
This article examines social media as a site for identity negotiation and community
building among Roma in the Czech Republic. As Roma are continually denied authority
over the construction of their identities, their Czech-ness, claim to physical spaces,
and generally made to feel that they do not belong—both in the material and symbolic
sense—this article examines how individual activists and community organizers utilize
media as a resource to combat spatial alienation. This ethnographic study pays close
attention to the cultivation of community through Facebook groups, the utilization
of groups and event pages to organize, and the affordances and challenges of moving
online efforts offline. At the same time, this article explores tensions and contradictions
of these digital spaces that may involve issues like the lack of resources and the
fragmentation of community—and of communal space—by such variables as age,
language, and technological access and literacy. Ultimately, this article suggests that
social media may embody both emotional and material places manifesting as additional/
alternative places to negotiate identities and belonging for Roma in the Czech Republic.
The findings of this research carry important implications for those with complicated
relationships to home(lands), including geographically displaced people.
Keywords
Belonging, Czech Republic, ethnography, home, identity, Roma
Corresponding author:
Azeta Hatef, Emerson College, 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116-4624, USA.
Email: Azeta_hatef@emerson.edu
1063174NMS0010.1177/14614448211063174new media & societyHatef
research-article2022
Special Issue Article
Hatef	 329
A young Romani activist shares with me about the importance of social media: “And, this
is our space, this is our space. The Facebook is a state of Roma. Yeah, it’s ours, absolutely.”
I ask Marek to clarify what he means by state: a mental state of being or a physical
state? He responds, “physical . . . like a space, state, yeah. And, this is what I want in the
future, our Roma place, state.” The longing for place is clear in Marek’s voice, an aspirational
desire for place shared by many of the people I spoke with during my fieldwork.
Today, there are an estimated 250,000 Roma in the Czech Republic, which translates
to roughly 2% of the Czech population1
(European Commission, 2020). The otherwise
deeply homogeneous country has failed to fully acknowledge and support Roma as equal
citizens, contributing high levels of unemployment, school segregation, inaccessibility to
quality healthcare, and antigypsyism. As Roma are continually denied authority over the
construction of their identities, their Czech-ness, claim to physical spaces, and generally
made to feel that they do not belong, this article examines how individual activists and
community organizers combat spatial alienation and “unbelongingness.” In particular,
this study sets out to understand how communities utilize social media as a site to negotiate
identities, build community, and process feelings of belonging. While research may
suggest a duality, media as a key resource for marginalized groups or detrimental to
groups, this article engages the tensions within this space to better understand, through an
analysis of media engagement among Romani activists and community leaders, its various
nuances. This ethnographic project2
utilizes in-depth interviews with activists and
community organizers in the country, observations of public demonstrations, and analysis
of online engagements. The article begins with an overview of relevant literature and
description of my methodological approach. I then turn to analysis of Facebook groups
and event pages that correspond with public demonstrations, arguing that Facebook provides
a supplemental place to organize, collaborate, and build community. These online
groups become complex communal places wherein identity and belonging are negotiated
among the Czech Roma and an additional/alternative interpretation of home is offered.
The Roma, spatial marginalization, and the cautious
promise of social media
This article draws from literature on social media identities, digital migration studies,
Roma studies, and human geography, paying close attention to the construction of
belonging and the notion of being at home. Examining both the material and immaterial
manifestations of home, this literature explores how those who are routinely, and at
times, violently reminded of their “unbelongingness” experience home in varied ways.
This article also explores social media use among marginalized groups to better understand
the affordances and limitations of media in providing spaces to experience belonging
and community.
The contested nature of “home”
“Roma” is an umbrella term often used to describe a heterogeneous population with
diversity along linguistic, religious, social, and cultural ties. Majority groups, especially
330	 new media & society 24(2)
throughout the Czech Republic, define Roma by a perceived otherness. This otherness
has a particularly ideological and marginalizing element—supporting systems of domination
by creating and maintaining a difference between Roma and non-Roma. The modern
nation-state maintains its dominant position and belonging both through territorial
and spatial control and practices that contribute to symbolic expressions and feelings of
unbelongingness experienced by minoritized groups, a point that McGarry (2008) feels
is especially salient for the Roma. The reality of Roma in the Czech Republic illustrates
how communities are often denied claim to geographic/physical homes, including quite
literally through forced evictions and segregation from Czech society through discriminatory
housing practices (Amnesty International, 2012; Picker, 2017). These experiences
produce feelings of existential anxiety, as individuals and families constantly experience
alienation and, at times, displacement.
Such practices have profound consequences for self and community identity—highlighting
the importance of home. The notion of home is multi-scalar, meaning that home
is “politically, socially, and culturally constituted, but lived and experienced in personal
ways” (Blunt and Dowling, 2006: 32). Home helps constitute identity, as a place where
an understanding of self develops. But home is complicated; it is not a fixed place where
set identities are simply affirmed. Fay (2011: 27) suggests that perhaps feelings of home
are experienced within that nuanced in-between space, arguing that “there is no such
comfort as a given, original home. What is offered instead is an understanding of home
that is not comfortable, yet nonetheless filled with a sense of belonging.” This notion of
home includes both the material and emotional, as home transcends geographic boundaries
and becomes a complex place to create meaning and a sense of belonging to a larger
collective. In this way, home is both a feeling and a place. I stress the importance of
symbolic home here, as physical homes may not always be experienced. People may not
have a fixed place of origin nor may they have the ability or desire to return to a
homeland.
Unlike displaced groups that may have a recollection of a physical home they have
left (forcefully or through their own volition), the Roma do not have a place recognized
as a Roma “homeland.” There is a long and contested debate surrounding the origins of
Roma people, the most common suggesting Roma come from India. However, Webb
(2019: 1200) argues “an Indian homeland is thus too remote and irrelevant to the realities
of the present.” A return to a homeland or creation of a homeland for Roma—a more
nationalistic view held by some and echoed by Marek’s remarks at the beginning of this
article—may not be possible, but such endeavors exemplify the desires to have a place
to honor Roma histories as well as create and maintain Roma identities. These histories
are also marked by experiences of discrimination and displacement. Webb (2019) argues
collective suffering has replaced notions of homeland—an already contested topic for a
dispersed group with diverse experiences—and instead suggests experiences of discrimination
and histories of oppression are what connect Romani people. This articulation of
Roma identity offers an alternative way to think through how Roma construct their identities,
especially in the absence of a home(land). This absence creates feelings of longing
in which the aspirational desire to create a “Roma place” is key to becoming—a critical
part of negotiating belonging (Racleş, 2018). And, in response to being denied a claim or
made to feel as if groups do not belong to a place, the location of alternative sites to
Hatef	 331
process feelings of belongingness is highlighted. Brah (1996) refers to feeling at home as
“achieved by physically or symbolically (re)constituting spaces which provide some
kind of ontological security” (Fay, 2011: 37).
The fragmented structure of the Internet is a valuable resource to communities that
have a fractured sense of home. This was recognized relatively early in the movement
into digital culture. Shohat (1999: 226) suggests that “new media can be an imperfect
means by which dislocated people who lost their geographic home retain their home
imaginary, while also struggling for a literal and metaphorical place.” As Easthope
(2004: 135) offers, “while homes may be located it is not the location that is “home.’”
Online spaces are imperfect—some of these drawbacks are discussed below—but these
mediated places may also provide a way to think through feelings of belonging.
Social media as places for marginalized groups
Exploring the dynamics of alternative mediated spaces that have been used by marginalized
groups and may be viewed as analogous to the situation of the Roma in the Czech
Republic is particularly useful in this analysis. Social media present a number of opportunities
for marginalized groups in locating spaces to meet people with similar interests
and share information with one another that helps build community. Furthermore, social
media may create a visibility for the disenfranchised that does not exist within dominant
media. However, social media also come with their own economic and technological
proclivities that complicate their utility for the creation of virtual spaces for groups like
the Roma.
Often social media are credited with creating structural changes—for example,
removing corrupt governments or changing particular policies. But, as Christensen
(2011) notes, the role of social media in dissent is not always clear, or at least complicated
(see also Cottle, 2011; Rodríguez et al., 2014; Wojcieszak and Smith, 2014). Social
media offer both progressive and regressive affordances, and rather than definitively
declare one side of the techno-utopian or techno-dystopian debate, examining the nuance
in between and engaging in analysis of the tensions within this space are helpful. For
example, social media have played an important role in activist efforts particularly for
marginalized groups while also being problematized spaces for organizing and identity—points
I will return to.
Certainly, emerging and social media can be valuable for social justice organizing and
offer ways to resist economic oppression. Social and digital media play an integral role
in providing minority groups a relatively safe space to access and disseminate information,
organize public engagements, create identities, and find communities, which assist
in producing feelings of empowerment and belonging (Faris and Rahimi, 2015). For
example, Zayani (2015) discusses how blogs became central to forming both political
and virtual identities for Tunisians. The Internet also became a valuable resource in
forming online campaigns that encourage offline activism in Tunisia, and in the cultivation
of “traditional” media forms like radio that may be distributed through digital means.
A key part of emerging media is how they facilitate connections and constitute groupbased
senses of self for those who have been separated from a safe physical place. From
a broader perspective, Bittarello (2009) notes how concepts of the Internet are tied to
332	 new media & society 24(2)
spatial metaphors—cyberspace, surfing the net, website—to the point, she argues, that
the spatial elements are mythologized and even sacred. We see the uses of social media
and the Internet as a digital home often enacted by the geographically displaced.
Witteborn (2015) suggests that computers and mobile devices are particularly important
for displaced populations to connect with family members and participate socially.
Furthermore, Witteborn suggests online spaces are vital in helping produce identities and
communities for forced migrants, as they manufacture identities that may not reflect their
current life, but their imagined reality. Sreenivasan et al. (2017: 106) discuss similar
concepts, suggesting mobile phones allow Sri Lankan refugees to keep an open dialogue
and “create a virtual community for the refugees, to some extent replacing the physical
community they left behind.” These online spaces may also offer participants the ability
to narrativize their identity in relation to different local and super-diverse contexts.
Focusing on Polish refugees and Facebook postings to other refugees, Baran (2018)
argues that such narratives illustrate how those who post on relevant Facebook groups
discursively maneuver issues of belongingness, ethnicity, nationalism, and identity. In
considering the various affordances of digital technologies, it is critical to investigate the
paradoxes as well, acknowledging that such technologies may also exacerbate some situations
(Leurs and Smets, 2018).
There are barriers and limits to the emancipatory nature of such technologies and
these limitations may vary by both group and geographic context. There exists a complicated
nature of media engagement among migratory populations, including access to
information and communication technologies as well as the cultural codes and skills
required to effectively use social media (Dekker et al., 2018; Leung, 2010). Furthermore,
there remain valid concerns of bad actors infiltrating these spaces and governments utilizing
social media to serve their own purpose (Morozov, 2012; Tufekci, 2014), including
censorship tactics to discourage citizens from political activism (Golkar, 2011;
Pearce and Kendzior, 2012). There are also commercial interests that may contradict and
challenge activist efforts (Papacharissi, 2002; Youmans and York, 2012). Such work
reminds us to avoid technological utopianism, whereby we credit social media with more
power to affect change than they actually possess. Many contextual factors in a given
situation may influence social change: social media could be one of them, but in conjunction
with other socio-cultural, economic, and political factors.
This article, then, sets out to understand how social media can ameliorate Roma
expressions of spatial alienation. Can media, especially social media, that integrate into
lived spaces and can be with someone constantly through mobile devices offer avenues
for discursively constituting belongingness among the Czech Roma? Furthermore, what
are the roles that such spaces may play in the development of a Romani identity created
by Roma, especially as enacted by activists working on Romani rights?
Methodology
This article is part of a larger ethnographic project where I conducted 25 in-depth, semistructured
interviews with Roma or Roma-allied individuals, accompanied by significant
observation and embeddedness in the Czech Republic (including a year of fieldwork).
Interviewees are made up of 15 women and 10 men, who were all over the age of 18 years.
Hatef	 333
The individuals I spoke with occupied various positions within their communities as
organizers, activists, artists, journalists, students, and directors of large (trans)national
organizations and recruited through snowball sampling. The interviews ranged in time
from approximately 40 minutes to 2 hours. In addition, I conducted follow-up interviews
with several of these individuals. Interviews with participants and observations of various
public gatherings—including two demonstrations discussed later in this article—
contribute toward this understanding, where I am able to capture how participants
describe their thoughts, motivating factors, and experiences.
Multiple and thorough readings of the interview transcriptions allowed me to induce
themes from the data through an open-coding process by clustering keywords and topics
(Ryan and Bernard, 2000). The development of themes and subthemes helped manage
the interview data and connect to other data, including observations of public demonstrations,
and mediated interactions online. This study was designed in accordance with the
institutional review board guidelines for the ethical treatment of human subjects and
received board approval. To maintain the anonymity of those participating in this research
project, I have changed the names of individuals and have not included the Facebook
group names.
The findings explore the complexity of Romani identity and belonging through interviews
and observations, focusing on three specific and overlapping themes: the cultivation
of community through Facebook groups, the utilization of Facebook groups and
event pages to organize, and the affordances and challenges of moving online efforts
offline. This study does not attempt to draw a linear relationship between social media
engagement among Roma and structural changes in Czech society. Rather, this study
examines how Roma activists and groups use what social media may offer in their particular
circumstances and for what reasons.
Homepages and home: locating places of belonging online
Jiří, a young Romani man from the Czech Republic, tells me, “I care about my home—
Czech Republic is my home, but I am not Czech.” He says that he has never fully selfidentified
as Czech due to countless experiences that suggested he did not belong. Jiří
recounts a story from kindergarten, where one of his friends said that he could not play
with him anymore because “you are Gypsy, little Gypsy and [I] can’t play with you.” Jiří
says that he was constantly confronted by the question, “Who am I?” This complicated
question of identity and belonging is one that many Roma in the Czech Republic
experience.
Like Jiří and Marek, several of the interviewees discuss a complicated relationship
with their Czech Roma identity and attachments to the country. Stefana, a young Romani
woman working for a Czech non-governmental organization (NGO), spoke of the students
with whom she works:
They are ashamed, so the students don’t say that “I am Roma.” And, they pretend that I’m
Italian or something. Which is crazy, they say like I’m not Roma and many of them don’t share
this identity. They are not proud because society tells us that it is not good to be Roma.
334	 new media & society 24(2)
Stefana’s comment articulates how Roma in the Czech Republic may not publicly
identify3
with this part of their identity for fear of bullying or further social exclusion,
which complicates feelings of belongingness. The people I spoke with discuss how
Roma in the Czech Republic occupy a liminal space—not fully feeling Roma and not
fully feeling Czech, but somewhere in between. In response to the question of “where are
you from?” one activist said he responds by saying that he is from the Czech Republic.
He then says, “Plzen” (an Eastern city in the Czech Republic) when asked once more.
When pressed by the same question, implying, “where are you really from?” He says
with a laugh, “Okay, India! If you need this 10th
Century [history lesson] we went from
India to Europe.” This account illustrates how Roma, who have lived in Europe for generations
continue to experience feelings of not really belonging.
Community building through Facebook groups
There are a number of Roma-related Facebook pages in the country and beyond (as these
online spaces typically transcend national borders), both open and closed, that range in
focus including youth empowerment, LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and
queer or questioning), advocacy groups, and scholarly communities. Certainly, Facebook
is a complex space with clear drawbacks for political activity (Youmans and York, 2012)
and manipulation by right-wing extremists or those in service of such political forces
(Fuchs, 2016; Kreiss and McGregor, 2018). However, Facebook allows people to connect
with one another to share experiences, an important aspect in building a sense of
community and belonging (see again Faris and Rahimi, 2015; Zayani, 2015). In addition
to providing communities with a place to bond, activists speak of the ways in which
Facebook has also been instrumental toward creating campaigns to combat antigypsyism
(although, as discussed later, fissures in the activist community are also evident about the
use of Facebook). Different modalities of affect that Facebook allows—that include the
sharing of trauma and prejudice, but also more positive, humorous, and upbeat posts—
are important to such efforts.
Danika, a young Romani activist who works as a public relations specialist in a
socially excluded community, created a Facebook group to share her personal stories and
experiences with discrimination in the Czech Republic. The group includes almost 500
members, as of June 2020. Danika—who remains the sole administrator of the Facebook
group—created the page to start a conversation and provide her community with a space
to talk through issues. On the page, where most posts are written in Czech and English
comes up when users share content that originates from international news agencies,
group members share various types of information with a specific focus on discrimination.
Many contributors to the page post educational content as well, including videos
and links to sources about the Holocaust, focusing on the Roma genocide. Discussions
related to the genocide serve as educational both in documenting the past and in contextualizing
ongoing experiences with antigypsyism.
Discussing some of the ways people connect with one another on the Facebook page,
Danika says, “Well, statements, negative statements, made by politicians. This connects
them.” In this way, there is a connection through exclusion, where group members collectively
combat harmful messages. Such statements are not rare in the Czech Republic.
Hatef	 335
For example, in 2018 there were several public events in response to the dangerous
rhetoric of politician Tomio Okamura, a far-right leader who has openly denied the genocide
of Czech Roma during the Holocaust, suggesting, for example, that the Roma were
able to freely leave a concentration camp in Lety, Czech Republic (Prague Daily Monitor,
2018). Such messages from political figures flow with, and likely accentuate, anti-Roma
sentiment in the Czech Republic (Bikár, 2018). However, Okamura’s comments have
galvanized communities both online and offline (the offline aspect is discussed later), as
have other examples of anti-Roma discourse. Danika says that discussions on the
Facebook page focus on social and political events and mentions, “then there are under
some status, negative comments from majority [non-Roma] that mobilizes this community
to react,” meaning people come together to respond to negative comments on the
page. For example, recent debates around social reforms have extended to these online
pages, where people defend their positions online. Danika shares, “when there is a comment
from someone from the community that is negative, well they reply . . . more
people at once, defending themselves.” Drawing from Webb’s (2019: 1209) argument
that the “condition of victimhood and collective suffering” are foundational aspects of
Romani identity, combatting discriminatory messages on Facebook demonstrates how
communities defend their identities.
In listening to the way Danika describes the Facebook group, it becomes clear that
this site is more than just a venue to share memes or post about upcoming events. This
online space transforms into a meaningful place to discuss politics and share personal
experiences with discrimination so as to build connections and alliances through shared
experiences, in other words to process feelings related to their marginalization. In the
case of the Roma, this marginalization is rooted in the hostility of their national location
toward them: their own politicians attack the legitimacy of their citizenship and their
hardship. Interrogating such criticisms in their geographic community, at times, is met
with hostility and/or violence. Thus, shared interrogations online solidify the Facebook
page as a Roma community.
Although certainly this is a political space by its sheer existence and the serious nature
of items shared and discussed on the page, there are also lighthearted posts, including
memes poking fun of political figures like Okamura. Indeed, humor functions to work
through serious issues while allowing members to express themselves in different ways
(Huntington, 2015). And there are also positive posts. The uplifting tone, for example,
when members post about successes, such as students excelling at school despite inequities
in the educational system are important characteristics of this space, as it may serve
to uplift members, who may often engage with demoralizing stories online. A recent post
documenting the journey of a Roma youth choir in collaborating with the Czech
Philharmonic on the page exemplifies this point. In this way, the online space grows into
a place to engage in public discussions, celebrations, and create places of reflection,
identification, and community.
Inclusion, affect, and organizing
Discussions with activists also illustrate how Facebook still may be used as a tool to
challenge the structures that have excluded Roma from various aspects of Czech society
336	 new media & society 24(2)
by creating a communal environment where different levels of common experience may
be shared and that can be inclusive, including a significant range of age, education level,
and economic class of users.
Danika discusses her surprise with how Facebook has spread throughout generations,
including the elderly. In U.S. contexts, the elderly, often isolated from key elements of
society, can use Facebook as a way to create social bonds (Jung and Sundar, 2016).
Danika shares how some users write poorly, “older person with no education at all,” but
that they are determined to be a part of the conversation online, where people of different
educational backgrounds and ages use the site. Petr, a community leader from a Czech
city with a large Roma population, echoes this point while discussing how to engage with
communities for Roma-related initiatives, where he believes specific “classes” of Roma
use “Facebook a lot.” Petr describes that even those who may have difficulty engaging
in online discussions due to literacy issues find ways to connect with others on Facebook.
Providing an example, Petr says, “We have experience with the old people—old grandmothers
have Facebook and just know what buttons to press and that’s it.” He goes on to
say that if you ask an older person (the grandmother in this case) to complete other functions,
such as uploading photos, she will not be able to, but that she will ask a family
member—a fascinating incidental promoting intergenerational dialogue. Petr suggests
that posts by older users may not be intelligible, “the writing is horrible, you know? You
can’t even . . . recognize what she wrote, but she’s writing, reading, watching the videos.”
In this way, these online spaces fulfill a desire to establish and maintain connections
with others, regardless of barriers related to age and literacy.
It is not critical that elderly or less literate users understand how to maximize
Facebook’s use or to be skilled posters, but rather the very basic skills and access that
allow integrative participation is key. In a society that has purposely and at times violently
denied Roma the right to participate, to create their own identities, and to be heard,
the online place becomes a site for collaboration, activism, and ultimately, a place of
resistance. Physical spaces may create barriers—inaccessible for those with limited
mobility, little choice for centralized gathering places, incompatible personal schedules—that
this Facebook space overcomes. For these reasons, community leaders and
activists are employing different methods to reach more people online and develop
spaces that encourage collective engagement.
Such spaces may be cultivated online but also be moved offline, as especially emphasized
by Petr. After living abroad for a number of years, Petr returned to the Czech
Republic and grew frustrated by ineffective efforts of local Roma representatives. He
works with a small team on different issues and focuses primarily on providing quality
education for Roma children by challenging school segregation. In organizing around
this issue, Petr found that Facebook could be used not just for online community building,
but also for offline organizing, a potential affordance noted by other scholars studying
social justice efforts in other contexts (Harlow, 2012). In late 2017, Petr and his
colleagues organized a public gathering of over 2000 people to call for equal access to
quality education. The event, Petr explains, coincides with the 10th anniversary of the
D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic decision. This case involves the misdiagnosis of
18 Roma students from 1996 to 1999—a legal ruling stating that the individuals were
denied the right to education (ERRC, 2015). According to Petr, the information that
Hatef	 337
people often receive about the ruling is from the press and incomplete. This event, which
brought together performers and speakers, is important in helping educate community
members about ongoing exclusionary practices within the educational system and
demand access to quality education. The public gathering exceeded their expectations
and one explanation given by Petr for this was the role of social media. Petr explains how
social media was used for this campaign, sharing that the organization he leads purchased
a webpage, but that the URL was long and complicated, so they decided to utilize
Facebook to inform and engage people. Through Facebook, he was able to enlist the help
of local popular figures to attract interest from viewers. Petr says that people are interested
in interacting with entertaining content online, specifically videos, some of which
he has created himself. He notes how Facebook’s ability to incorporate upbeat messages
and positive affect can be useful for mobilization (a conclusion also supported by
Gerbaudo, 2016). In response to a comment that came up among several activists about
Facebook mostly being used “for fun,” Petr explains that Facebook content needs to go
to the extreme to attract attention, continuing, “so, it’s not true that the Facebook is useless
for mobilizing or for all these activities. It is actually [useful], we can use the
Facebook, but the way we have to work with the Facebook is specific.” Petr discusses
how he enlists the help of the “best known artist to transmit the information.” He goes on
to say,
When we posted the videos, it was not the best resolution video, it was made from the phone,
the resolution was not very good. It was not the best cameraman, so it was shaky, you know, but
it was real people.
Petr finds that the best way to connect with communities is to know their interests and
to provide entertaining content (“fun,” “laughing,” “friendly”) that can also be educational.
Production values are seen as less important: in fact, low production values
(“shaky”) may be a way to build credibility by enhancing the authentic and grounded
message of the video (from “real people”). Petr refers to the “good strategy” of social
media campaigns and on-the-ground networking efforts that brought people from all
over the country to commemorate the anniversary of this ruling and to continue fighting
for a more just educational system.
A tale of two cities and their public demonstrations: social media,
participation, and generational tensions
The online Facebook group developed by Danika and the campaigns created by people
like Petr demonstrate the different ways that Romani activists utilize Facebook and how
these online groups and pages provide a relatively safe and inclusive place to cultivate
shared identities and causes. But the use of social media by activists also varies. This is
illustrated through an observation of two demonstrations and their accompanying organizing
practices online. These demonstrations, which took place in the city of Prague on
17 March 2018 and Brno on 15 February 2018, reveal some of the affordances and challenges
of moving online efforts offline.
338	 new media & society 24(2)
The two demonstrations were organized in response to remarks made by the Czech
politician Tomio Okamura about Roma during the Holocaust with a similar goal of calling
attention to the ongoing discrimination that Roma experience in the Czech Republic.
The event in Brno, organized by a group of young activist-intellectuals (as they are
referred to by a number of activists within the country), focuses specifically on commemorating
Roma victims of the Holocaust, whereas the event in Prague has a broader
focus, a protest against racism and violence organized by a number of groups. Discussions
on the Facebook page dedicated to the demonstration in Brno primarily feature social
media users posting about the status of their attendance. Organizers quickly respond to
questions about who is organizing the event and the nature of the demonstration, where
responses detail the identities of the individuals organizing the event and the speakers,
who include non-Roma, such as the mayor of Brno. Organizers also reinforce the idea
that this is a “peaceful” demonstration and urge demonstrators to bring candles instead
of signs. The demonstration in Prague follows a similar format in disseminating information
and organizing the event via Facebook. In response to questions about the scheduling
of events during the demonstration, a photograph of a printed document program is
posted. While there are a few people who often post and respond to inquiries, there are
more people and/or organizations posting on the event page for the demonstration in
Prague. Following along the event page, it is difficult to pinpoint the primary organizer(s)
and details of the demonstration are scattered around the event’s page. Adding to some
of the confusion was a location change 3 days before the demonstration in Prague.
Although both demonstrations in Brno and Prague focus on calling attention to the
experiences of Roma—including commemoration of the past—the two demonstrations
differ in their online organization and execution. Organizers for the demonstration in
Brno discuss how turnout is lower than what they had hoped for but attribute it mostly to
the short notice (the first discussion post on the page was written on 9 February and the
event took place on 15 February). One organizer, in a sense, already anticipated a low
turnout among Roma, commenting on his past experiences organizing events. The trope
of Roma apathy is highlighted on Facebook posts, too. One Facebook user comments on
the event’s page leading up to the demonstration skeptical of the number of Roma who
will attend the demonstration but suggests that Roma should not “sit at home” and “show
them that we are not afraid.” However, participation in public demonstrations is complex,
as one activist notes,
How can I take them together and make them feel that there is something possible? [That] we
can change something . . . because Roma don’t feel that the change is possible because every
day they are facing against racism, discrimination, and the borders to access a normal life.
He goes on to explain how people do not feel safe in such spaces and that they are
“afraid that neo-Nazis will come and beat us.” Physical threats are a real concern for
Roma and rightfully so. One look at the daily news or discussions on online boards document
the frequent attacks on Roma. Taken together, these concerns shape participation in
public demonstrations.
What becomes clear through the analysis of these demonstrations are the factors that
divide activist groups. The Roma activist community in the Czech Republic is small and
Hatef	 339
connected, yet the generational differences between the “young activist-intellectuals”
and the “elders” contribute to some different and, at times, competing visions for Roma
activism. The absence of the younger activists was felt at the demonstration in Prague,
an observation that was also made by activists. Gabra notes after the demonstration in
Prague,
This was organized by more or less traditional Romani men from the older generation who
consider themselves the spokespeople for their communities. They run the gamut on the
political spectrum, but it is safe to say that they probably think it’s normal for the presence to
be all male. They also have zero expectations of their messages having any weight.
Here, a group of speakers primarily express grievances. While this type of space is
needed, many suggest that this method of demonstrating is ineffective and typical for this
group. Ivana, who also attended the demonstration in Prague, expresses her disappointment
with the low turnout of protestors in an email correspondence following the demonstration—writing
that this would be the last Roma-organized demonstration she will
attend. She says, “It was the same as usual, Roma are not able to come together to protest.
I was taking part in several events like this and it is always the same.” Ivana points
to the low turnout and how men who are considered “elders” dominated discussion.
When I ask why this would be the last Roma-organized demonstration she attends, Ivana
responds,
In case the event is organized by the “old school” Roma leaders, it is always like it was on
Saturday: a lot of debatable and contradictory statements. I think it is due to more reasons: 1)
they have problems to express themselves in Czech language which is not their mother tongue
2) they are still in the position of “we are discriminated against and you, Gadze [non-Roma],
are the worst”—they still did not understand that this rhetoric is old fashioned and not accepted.
They are still not able to formulate their civic rights are violated 3) although they complain on
discrimination they also discriminate and are not sensible to the matter of participation of all
groups, not only men 4) many of them are kind of they are egoists and like to speak in public,
they are building their cult—this is really strange, as they are, at the same time, committed to
helping the Roma.
She clarifies, “I will attend future events only in case younger Roma leaders will
organize it, or events organized by non-Roma.” The generational gap is clear. There are
significant challenges for the elders within the community, as noted by Ivana’s comments.
The mindset among the older generation of activists is seen, at times, as incompatible
with that of the younger generation. The Romani activist-intellectuals of the
current generation speak Czech and are able to voice concerns in a way that is understood
by the majority, helping create a larger network of allies. Furthermore, these young
activist-intellectuals have a sophisticated understanding of newer resources and
technologies.
This use of technology is also, in fact, criticized by elders in the community, further
illustrating some of the generational tensions. One demonstrator attending the event in
Prague wrote an opinion piece on Romea.cz following the demonstration: “The gadge
turned out in person for the Prague demonstration, Romani people only express their
340	 new media & society 24(2)
criticism on Facebook.” The piece comments on several points, primarily expressing
frustration with the low turnout of Roma to the demonstration, and suggests that Roma
are not politically involved in changing their realities. The author writes,
How can you expect anything to change if you cannot manage to participate? I see all these
posts on Facebook about all the parties you manage to go to. That’s fine, go have a good time,
but take an interest in other things too. What kind of a life do you want for your children here?
This position, though, fails to discuss some of the reasons why Roma may not participate
in public gatherings, particularly the threats of physical danger.
In contrast, the demonstration in Brno departed from the structure of centering the
voices and experiences of the elders. This is demonstrated by the diversity in speakers
both in gender and age. In comparing observations of the two public gatherings, there are
stark differences that are realized both online and offline. Facebook, as many of the
activists note, aids in informing a larger number of people of their organization as well
as in expressing support, concern, and frustrations about their experiences. However,
these demonstrations also show how Facebook engagement is complicated, as different
organizational modalities intersect with the affordances of social media to create sometimes
different results. As the two examples illustrate, it may also still be early in the life
of social media symbiosis with the organization of public demonstrations, especially in
a population as diffuse as the Roma.
As Ivana suggests, “I know that Facebook was used to unite people, for different initiatives
in the past, so I know.” However, she goes on to say that Facebook would be a
useful resource if used “correctly,” further demonstrating the disconnections among
activist groups. While there may not be a proven way to use social media for different
efforts, there are activists in the country reaching various levels of success by employing
different strategies to engage people and communities in campaigns, as the case with
Petr, who looked to create and maintain community through different affective modalities
on Facebook, including humor.
Conclusion
This article explores how Roma in the Czech Republic may utilize social media to negotiate
their identities and pays close attention to the development of communities in online
places. Findings demonstrate some of the ways in which individual activists and community
organizers utilize media as a resource to combat spatial alienation by creating
communal places to support one another, as Danika notes about the online group and
highlighted by the engagement of users from various age groups and levels of literacy.
Facebook event pages and groups provide a supplemental space for people to organize,
learn, collaborate, and build community, as mediated interactions coexist alongside public
practices, as discussed by Petr in organizing a call for equal access to quality education.
In this way, the very nature of this online space—the multimodality of features and
uses—compliments the negotiation of shared identities and belonging for those experiencing
a fractured sense of home.
Hatef	 341
This analysis also highlights the importance of examining the drawbacks, challenges,
and tensions within these online spaces, specifically among activist groups. Like home,
these online places are full of tension and contradiction, of belonging and unbelonging,
where the views of elders clash with younger generations, and collective identity is negotiated.
Online spaces are not the only sites in which people may experience belonging,
but as Czech society continues to exclude Roma, this article examines how Roma may
locate online places to work through feelings of spatial alienation. What is offered is an
additional and/or alternative iteration of home—a critical place to negotiate individual
and collective identities.
As Livingstone (1999: 92) suggests, “home has become, and can be sustained as,
something virtual, as without location. A place without space, to compensate, maybe, for
when we live in spaces that are not places. When we cannot go home.” This article supports
claims that home can be experienced within online places and extends discussion
in this area by examining the negotiation of self and community among the Czech Roma,
arguing that online communal places are multi-scalar and serve as both resource and
process. This contributes to cultural survival and efforts to combat injustice on and
offline and carries important implications not only for Roma beyond the Czech Republic,
but also for those who experience the loss of home or live in places that are hostile
toward them. There are similarities in how Roma utilize this online space to other minoritized
groups, for example, creating a place to cultivate shared identities and causes
(Georgiou, 2006; Grant, 2017). Furthermore, the article contributes to the development
of research related to social media use among Roma—an emerging area of research
(Hajská, 2019). Through analysis of how Roma in the Czech Republic negotiate identities
and expressions of spatial alienation online, the findings of this research provide
ways to think through how social media may contribute to creating a sense of belonging
among diverse and diffusely situated communities.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/
or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Fulbright Program and the Don
Davis Program in Ethical Leadership.
ORCID iD
Azeta Hatef https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0780-010X
Notes
1.	 It is important to note that estimates of the number of people who identify as Roma may be
larger, as it remains difficult to accurately capture demographic information.
2.	 This article is part of a larger ethnographic analysis examining media engagement among
Roma in the Czech Republic, including fieldwork spanning from Spring 2016 to Summer
2018.
3.	 The practice of “passing”—wherein people conceal or deny their heritage is an attempt to
combat deeply rooted racism (Derrington, 2007). Pantea (2014: 612) refers to passing as a
“necessity of survival in racist situations.”
342	 new media & society 24(2)
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Author biography
Azeta Hatef is an Assistant Professor of Journalism Studies at Emerson College. Her research
focuses on media systems in a global context, minority media production, and the relationship
between media and diasporas. Specifically, her work explores questions related to identity, belongingness,
and representation.