The statement does not suggest that Romanians are gangsters, just that there were Romanian gangsters in that prison. I think I would have found "black gangsters" acceptable in that context too. "Jewish gangsters" would have surprised me because it doesn't fit the stereotype I have of Jews. But I don't think I would have found it racist.
Don't be angry at the messenger. He's explaining how the separation happens. Not talking about it doesn't make it better.
He's not identifying a minority and labelling them criminals though, he's identifying other criminals that come from a particular minority.
All Romanians != Subset of Romanians in UK prisons.
He also mentions gangsters. It's quite within the bounds of what he's written that Romanian criminals in UK prisons that aren't gang members might also not want to associate too closely with the gangs.
not at all, but singling out a single ethnicity out of a massively mixed prison, quite is. particularly when it falls in the line of dailymail propaganda. or is racism racism only when against certain groups and not all?
He didn't single them out. He mentioned actually mentioned drug addicts first (which are most likely English) and then the Romanian Gangstars. I would imagine they either stood out in his mind or he happened to be in the same wing of the prison. If I met a Romanian Gangstar it would definitely stand out in my mind.
Also labelling criminals from Romania as Romanian is simply a statement of fact. If they were Japanese Yakuza or Chinese Triads I would expect him to call them Japanese and Chinese respectively.
I suspect you've missed a subtlety about the situation. If there was a black population, and I've referred to them all as "black thugs" then that's racist. If there's a subset of the population who are thugs and black, and I refer to them as black thugs then that's descriptive.
Like, if he said "the a Romanian programmers gather outside at lunch to smoke", that's not racist if that's what the Romanian programmers do, it's simply descriptive.
Sure, sometimes there's an underlying motivation of unnecessary racial discrimination behind why someone points out a fact, but facts aren't racist of themselves.
People in the UK are usually referring to people that come from the country of Romania when they say Romanian. The ethnic meaning I don't think is used much over here.
