A few days ago, exploring North London, I was struck by a question concerning a minority/subculture, whose members I kept passing. At first I was rather nervous about writing anything about it on here, for fear of offending or upsetting anyone, but having just come across this documentary about the group of people I was wondering about, I think I’ll go ahead and ask it: Why would a group of people, which historically has been one of the most persecuted communities of all, insist on continuing to wear the same clothes and hair styles, effectively setting themselves apart from non-members? However, as the documentary explains rather well, there is a long, complex and rather fascinating history behind their culture. I had been naively concerned that their setting theirselves apart so fervently would just ferment mistrust and suspicion; but we must always bear in mind that such ‘concerns’ have historically lead to humanity’s darkest chapters. If we start trying to regulate how people dress and imposing rules to ease such suspicions, we risk stamping out the very diversity which makes humanity so beautiful. They dress as they do in order to keep their culture alive, and surely that must be celebrated.