nightwing and his heritage

i feel like dick's disconnect to his romani culture isnt ever properly adressed in all the comics i read about him that even mention his heritage.. like devin's run was racist about it but was the closest we actually ever got to him even loosely reconnecting. it had him speaking some of the language. im not praising devin or anything (again. the racism) but the fact the other arcs that are more recent are either so Nothing or also racist is... dissapointing.

in the 2016 nightwing run a character called Raptor is introduced with a gauntlet names Suyolak. Suyolak is a romani folkloric character- a wizard, basically- and im not gonna be too mad about them reducing that down to a glove. ok. it's not exactly easy for outsiders to learn about this stuff. im rrom and i only know a Little. what i am gonna be mad about is the writer making raptor and mary, dicks romani mother, steal for no apparent reason in their backstory. there was zero reason for them to steal. they can have a distaste for the rich without stealing. they only did that to, idk, provide 'proof' that raptor dislikes bruce wayne. when he could dislike bruce wayne for, idk, adopting a romani boy and disconnecting him from his culture?? WHICH WOULD MAKE A LOT MORE SENSE FOR HIS CHARACTER. he would be mad about that. it would make a lot of sense and would make him more than 'guy who hates rich people'. i remember him saying to bruce that he's mad he raised dick in a life of privelege and its like...... go on. i know you can say something more than that. why is raptor mad dick didn't know hardship? raptor in his own way cared about dick because he's mary's son and he liked mary. he sort of took dick in when they went on missions together or whatever. it literally only makes sense if you realise raptor is mad dick grew up not knowing his own culture.

but like at least that writer vaguely incorporated his heritage into the text. all tom taylor gave us is one line. "beautiful romani smile". yep, his whole heritage and his likely complicated relationship to it condensed into one line so gadje can sc it and post it to twitter or x or whatever. havent noticed any other mention since. wonder if they'll bring it up as dick's been arrested after being framed. it could bring up how the prison system treats romani men and men of colour as a whole but knowing tom taylor i doubt it will do anything.

i'm just waiting on them to hire a romani writer or sensitivity reader or even consult romani people or orgs so they could actually start discussing his heritage so people can stop reading him as white gadje.