It seems to me that while colour of skin, history and background are real, and those kind of things are important for people, and link people and are things to respect and celebrate, to give them the label "race" is to adopt the language of the oppressors, and tends to play into their hands.

When it comes to the wide variety of Travelling people, who have all kinds of skin colour and a variety of histories, talking in terms of "race" has been and continues to be used as a way of fostering division and discriminating against particular groups, and ultimately against all of them. That doesn't mean that the differences don't exist or that people should be ashamed to assert their identity as Romanies or as Paveys or a whole range of other peoples. But those things aren't a matter of "race".