Just a quick and friendly reminder that GYPSY is a racial slur used against the Rroma, Lom, Dom, and Sinti people (and sometimes Travellers as well). If you don't belong to that group, you don't use the G-word. In the same way you don't use the N-word if you aren't Black.
Okay?
Okay.
@LianaBrooks Thank you for this info. I know it's not a word I should use in the US, but I have had concerns about not using the right identifier for European people who do use it. Knowing that it is simply not my word to use clarifies this.
@weirdfizz If your European friend uses it because they belong to the tribes, they may give you permission to use it with them, especially if they're cut off in a way that they don't know which group they belong to. But Rroma/Roma/Romani would be the word I suggest you use first. Generally we're lumped together as the Romani people or the Roma (sometimes with a double-R).
My grandmother is Roma. She is one of nine children.
Of those 9, she's the only one we know survived the Holocaust.
She uses Gypsy sometimes. I can use gypsy. My kids can use gypsy.
You... maybe? Maybe you're a cousin somewhere along the line?
But maybe not.