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Why are Poles in other countries called "Plastic Poles"? [168]
They aren't respected, they are pander to and patronised. They are treated that way to benefit the school/teacher financially or opportunistically. I've worked in schools where little Jasiek or Gosia are put into higher classes, "tolerated" for forgetting their homework (cos the parents don't give a damn when we complain to them), etc, etc. It doesn't mean we respect them... we loathe them. They get zero help when they want an out-of-class proof reading or help with a letter etc.
It's fun when one of the little prats fails FCE and suddenly finds Daddy's money can't buy them everything.
On the question of ethnicity, how is it that a Black person can refer to themselves/be referred to as African American (or Afro-Caribbean) or a "brown" or "yellow" (no racism intended) person can be referred to as British-Asian, Chinese etc (when they might never have gone to China, Africa, India etc)?
In the days before passports were huge, there were often large communities in other countries who maintained their cultural identity and it was no considered unusual for them to be referred to as whatever the nationality was. It's perhaps only since the notion of a nation-state that it has become problematic.
Do Poles from Kresy get reffered to as "Plastic Poles"? Did szlachta in the old commonwealth get told, "No, you're a plastic Lithuanian, you were actually born in Poland"?
Imagine a 17th century conversation in Gdansk ...
"Hello, I'm Scottish..."
"Do you speak Polish?"
"No"
"Where you born in Scotland?'
"No, here in Gdansk, my parent s are both Scottish, as are my grandparents"
"Kurda! szkot plastyczny!"