One is a traveler, the other is not. “She’s a little rascal,” smiles Sandy when talking about her nephew’s wife, Loona. “She’s my aunt but above all we’re friends,” replies the youngest. Aged 36 and 26 respectively, the two young women form a very close and very active duo for almost two years on social networks. In a joking tone, they make fun of all the clichés that are always well-established about travelers on their TikTok channel, to better debunk them. “We wanted to break these prejudices because it’s tiring to always hear the same things about our community,” indicate the two TikTokers, followed by nearly 80,000 subscribers and whose videos have around 2.5 million views.
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In front of the camera, Sandy and Loona, who both live on land in the Nantes metropolitan area, each play a role, “even if we’re not like that in real life”. In that of “la racli” therefore, Loona kindly asks her friend about the way of life in a caravan or about the culture and traditions of traveling people. And Sandy responds to him straight away. The tone is deliberately schoolboy even if the reality they describe does not necessarily make you smile. “It’s 2025, but there is still a lot of racism and discrimination against Travelers,” they assure. With these videos, we also want to show our daily lives because we are normal people, not savages or aliens.”
Assisted, thieves or hedgehog eaters
The clichés therefore die hard and for many, Travelers do not work, pay nothing and live off society, “while many have a job and pay their taxes like any French citizen”. They are also accused of thieves “while there are no more of them than elsewhere” or of eating hedgehogs. “I’ve never eaten it personally,” says Sandy. This may have been the case before, when people had nothing to eat, and it remained in the imagination. We don’t steal the chickens either, we do our shopping at Leclerc like everyone else.”
In some videos, Loona also teases Sandy about the alleged dirtiness of Travelers. “That’s completely false,” Sandy replies. We have showers, toilets and all travelers are very clean, without exception. It’s the same inside our caravans where it’s very small and it gets dirty very quickly. So we can’t let things pile up and we have to clean every day.”
MPs or mayors also convey these clichés
Like Sandy and Loona, other young travelers use humor on social networks, like elodykb.shelby or Brenda, to talk about their daily lives and dispel preconceived ideas. “A good thing” according to Nelly Debart, president of the National Association of Citizen Travelers. “So much the better if it helps change mentalities and if it makes some people think,” she says. This also shows that our young people are not illiterate and master technology.”
But the fight is still far from won, according to the president of the ANGVC. “We experience this discrimination every day,” she assures us. And the most serious thing is that we also hear these clichés from the mouths of MPs or mayors when they do not even respect the law on Traveler reception areas.”
The same goes for the world of work, where travelers must “hide their accent” during interviews. “If they find out you’re from the community, they definitely won’t hire you,” laments Sandy. When I was working, I didn’t say anything to anyone, for example. We are told about our difficulty integrating, but that is our reality and it is not pleasant.”
* The term “racli” designates, in Traveler jargon, a young woman who does not belong to the community.
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