Orlando Bloom used a slur against the Roma community to describe himself
Orlando Bloom has been in London this week to promote his new movie, Unlocked. His promotional tour has been like The Uncool Tour, really, and I’m not saying “uncool” in the Lester Bangs way. I mean that Orlando is literally making me cringe with how hard he’s trying to be a thing. A few days ago, Bloom “joked” about his nude photos – which he is the only one bringing up at this point – saying, “My poor son—he’s got a lot to live up to.” Dude… that’s gross. But then it got so much worse.
Before we talk about this, I’d just like to preface this with the admission that I, as an American, was well into adulthood before I really understood that the Roma community is a marginalized minority which has been historically oppressed. I would say that most Americans don’t understand a lot about the Romanis or Travellers, nor have we dealt with the fact that there are many derogatory terms about Romanis – like “gypsy” – which are offensive and that we should not use. Europeans, I find, have a lot more sensitivity when it comes to treating Romanis as a protected class. So, I’ve never heard of the term “pikey,” but from what I gather, it’s offensive towards Travellers. And Orlando Bloom used the term to describe himself:
Orlando Bloom is facing criticism in the U.K. after he casually dropped the racist term “pikey” during an interview. The actor, 40, used the term, which is considered to be derogatory to Gypsies and Travellers, while explaining why he does his own stunts while talking to BBC Radio 1’s “Breakfast Show” on Wednesday.
“I’m still a pikey from Kent, boy, I’m still a pikey from Kent,” he said to host Nick Grimshaw. “You don’t want to get on the wrong side of me, boy.”
In the wake of the comments, both the BBC Radio 1 and Grimshaw apologized for Bloom’s use of the word, one which The National Gypsy-Traveller-Roma Council called “racially abusive.”
“As with any live broadcast, we take great care to ensure all guests are briefed about their language before going on air,” the network said. “We apologized to listeners afterwards for any [offense] caused.”
“So good to have Orlando Bloom on the show … he’s a bit of a loose cannon,” Grimshaw explained. “Apologies if you were offended by anything that Orlando may have said.”
Bloom told the BBC that he meant nothing by his comments.
“I’ve come from Kent and I grew up with a lot of, like, freewheeling, cool, interesting characters like that,” he said. “I certainly wasn’t taking a slant at that at all. I’m very respectful.”
As I said, I’ve never heard the term before so I’m not the best judge of how offensive this is, on a sliding scale of racial pejoratives. Wiki says that the word means someone who is coarse and low-class. Does it make a difference if he was referring to himself? Eh. I would like to see a better apology from Orly on this rather than some non-apology “I’m very respectful.” Except for that offensive-to-Romani term you used?
So, just putting aside the offense to Romanis and Travellers, can we just talk for a second about the crux of what Orlando said? Like, he was trying to front like he’s some bad bitch from the streets, that he’s tough as hell. Yes, he gets in fist-fights in the mean streets of Ibiza. And he throws punches as Justin Bieber. Let’s be real here, Orly.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmbmtjaIN2e86ro5qmlKSso7jOqKSYraOasaCtvqyjrqqPlrSitc2sq5ismJqss7vMmpacp52iwq%2B107KWraePmbK0r9GimZ6XmJ66tLHLn2Y%3D