Sad life of a Polish migrant in the UK. Ch. 5 - Racism

When I was leaving for the UK I thought that they were normal people, a little similar to us, and generally polite. Now after 3 years I see that they in fact believe in racial issues, white supremacy, corporal punishment, tiered society and all other things that make up a fascist or a Nazi. No offence intended - just facts.

The things that they tell me straight in my face are just astounding:
-you Poles are a nation of slaves.
-you Poles are a little white, because you were controlled by Sweden and you got mixed.
-they are just Polish.
-you are Eastern European, so you should be on 16k max, you know...
-have you noticed how it's all controlled by Jews?
-Poles should be punished.
-******* Polish girl!

Those are just from my personal experience, and as I mentioned, I don't look very Polish. Imagine what happens to people who look African? My friend from last work, Damola, wanted to transfer her bank manager job to Britain. She came, and found that all the work she can get was cleaning. She ran out of money and eventually took it. She was cleaning in a bank, and all the high school drop-outs who worked in customer service where laughing heartily - 'even their bank managers wash our floors'.

That's why I don't work for any Briton. I have a small business. My friend 'Sandra' from Shanghai have tried working for them, too, and quit, too. She bought a house to live as a landlord, because she just couldn't stand the everyday attitude.

I am sure that the most popular answer under this thread will be: 'so get the f*** out'. Why? Because first, you need people to work in your big economy, then when they come, you tell them you don't need them, try to pay them less than minimum, and tell everyday that having taken the offer was some kind of a fault, a stupidity.

And that just may be true, judging from the 'guarantees' of Britain.

On the other hand - if spoken to directly the Brits are straightforward. And if one meets a genuinely nice person, they are usually so nice that one wants to shove them in the bushes and make sweet love to them.

Do they have split personalities?

Honestly saying, we got the similar issues for Russian speaking/Middle-Eastern minorities. This idiocy is everywhere on this planet.

Kysia - Have you been to Scotland ?

I think many Polish people live cheaply and rent houses and flats in poor areas, where it is more likely to come across racists.
It is the same in every country in Europe.

SeanBM

I would agree with you wholeheartedly - if it were true. But the thing is that with poor working Britons we get along fine. We grab a pint, call them mates, and make friends. The problem starts when there are unemployment inheritants on one side, and poor middle class on another. Poor middle class is capable of absolutely everything.

Today I got thrown out of a bank for example, by a bank manager, who suggested that I should close my accounts, and she will not have the time to meet me at 2 (but it was at 4!), ok, she will not have the time to meet me at 3 (but it was at 4!) no time at 3!

I don't fully understand why, was it because you are Polish?

Do you mean like the Germans ? Gas chambers , deathcamps, ? The extermination of millions. I don't think we are quite there yet.

I'll say it again love...........I know lots of Polish folk who do not experience the problems you seeem to. I am not saying it is your fault but it is not the full truth, not the full picture.

Racism. That's a good one. First of all, I think that the Poles are not clean on this one themselves. Some Polish ppl I know are completely serious when they are giving out to the black ppl and the Indian ppl and in the same sentence complain about how an Irish person has something regarding them being Polish.

So I think it's everywhere. Generally speaking it's performed by the so-called "lesser spirits" that don't look any further than their own world and rather take a group as a whole than individual per individual. It just is easier for them to blame a certain group if one person of that group does something bad. Sometimes it's not even necessary to have one individual doing something wrong. For me personally, I always take person per person. If somebody is an *sshole, he or she is an *sshole to me; it doesn't matter whether that person is black, white, yellow, green or purple.

I think "racism" is most of the time not even racism at all. It's the unknown, unfamiliarity with a group of newcomers that is kinda scary to some ppl. And instead of approaching that what you're scared of to find out if it is indeed scary, a lot of ppl prefer to start "barking" at them. It's a primitive reaction: like when you meet a wild bear in the woods, you start screaming and shouting and make lots of noise in order for the animal to go away. Well, ok, I wouldn't approach a wild bear in the woods openly, but I guess it's clear what I'm trying to say. For some ppl it's kinda hard to leave their own comfort zone in order to get to know a little bit more of those new ppl, whos culture is unfamiliar and whos habits may be different than ours. I would say, have a chat with them, share dinner with them, see how they live and what they like to do for entertainment, I bet after that, the major bulk of racism will disappear as it's no longer unknown and unfamiliar. This works the other way round too: these newcomers are unfamiliar with your culture too. Ideally, one could invite them over for dinner or something to have them acquainted with your culture too. Only if all this doesn't work and the person is still racist towards you, then you got a hardcore idiot that either needs to go to jail, some reform-institution or just get a plain old beating the cr*p out of him/her :)

In short, most racism is coming forth from unfamiliarity. Once this obstacle has been circumvented, I think racism will dissappear like April's snow.

M-G (one planet, one world, one small ball and we all have to share it)

Huh ? They aren't white, they are pink.

mark - of course it's not the full picture. this can only be the picture that I'm able to give. and in my eyes the English are not as perfect as they like to paint themselves.

you are not there yet - not yet. For now the local radio only airs comments like ' I think that all of them should do community service, like sweeping the streets'. As it was not enough that I don't get the average pay.


I think so - not directly racist, but she knows that Polans will not go to courts over some petty rude person's behaviours. So she was free to suggest to me that I'm not welcome. Or we can say that she was condescending because all our money are in a mutual account in a different bank, so she was allowed to be rude to poor people?

That might be an explanation - the English only respect force and money. If she believes I am a poor immigrant, she felt free to be as she pleased. And racism is just a dull explanation.

I will be amazed if anyone said that and they weren't joking.


Think yourself lucky, i would have you on the minimum wage + no benefits.


Maybe if she pulled her head out of her arse she would of realised that companies are not going to make space for someone thats just come of the boat.


Looks to me like your just lying now, if that really did happen then you would be the first person i've ever heard of to have been thrown out of a bank and asked to close their account.

Which makes the assumption that you are the norm;) Let's have a level playing field for making comaprisons on!

I'm sorry that you feel this way. I'd like to respond in detail some time but now is not the time. Deadlines to meet and all that.

I think the word your looking for is xenophobia

try 'average' people. this term' normal', is similar to Russian 'normalno'.


of course, as usual, if English messed up that must be a lie.

Are you xenophobic BE?

Poland is extremely racist, you shun people from different cultures etc, I wouldn't say the UK was racist in fact our laws and political correctness favour non Brits.

Maybe as a country the extreme political correctness is making us become more racist i'm not sure as its now starting to get ridiculous.

Maybe people are racist towards you because you are a white christian and in the UK this is no longer acceptable.

Don't be so stupid, you could never take someone to court over they're rude behaviour no matter how rude they are being.


I suppose so, saying that i will always make the effort to talk to people and find out what they are all about but i always expect people to fit in and not to try and change things to their way.

Like with the poles, i didn't welcome them but i spoke to them out of politeness and after 5 years of doing so i have found 1 person that i could truly say was a genuine that i really did like, infact he was the only person i was sad to see go.

another credit to the nation


I could. If she's not comfortable with serving me, there is probably a problem.


because we call the Enlglish Angole? That's anger.

Not so much towards other europeans although it does happen but i knew an indian guy studying in poland and he got loads of abuse,

You really are clueless, any company can refuse to serve you. They are private companies and are on private property.


Normally its something like angalski

If iam to be honest i couldn't care if my country is racist, xenophobic or anything else that might offend other nations. What does annoy me is other people having a go when their country is no better or is worst. Many polish people are racist, not so much the women but the men are. If anyone of them wants to describe someone to me that is asian or black they will always say something that sounds like "chaback" or "charnoo" to describe that person. It doesn't bother me because people will always find that other races are different, i accept what is real in life and not what looks good on paper.

I think that part of the problem is that we are white - they bring against us what they are prohibited to bring against non-white non-christians. Funny. they shouldn't have gone to those countries in the first place, so now there wouldn't be people coming to the capital of their own Commonwealth.


angielski is a normal word, polite word, meaning English

Ksysia you sound a bit disappointed, maybe you had a high expectancy before you came to england, alot of people have.

It was interesting what you said about how the acceptance from working classes was much more natural than middle classes. I think that there are good and bad in all classes of society. Sometimes in banks it is the way the person deals with you, the level of empathy they show, or do not show. I dont think that it was personal maybe the person just had a bad day, or it could be Autum. I have to admit I was also annoyed this week with the level of service I have received everywhere, it was noticeable.

As mcgee said it varies from person to person and not country to country, you get the same miserable people in Poland as you do in england, and yes the polish are just as racist as any other person. However, it is one thing showing it and one thing thinking it.

I think however that the middle class society always have something to prove, and are a little unstable. (stuffed off to boarding schools at an early age, devoid of a little love and understanding, must perform academically at an early age) this has alot to do with the midddle class persona.

I think it would be silly to say the British are more racist than the Poles, as there are so few foreign nationalities here (in Poland) and in every nation there are stupid, angry, ignorant people who project their problems on to others.

I think the BNP (Wiki) are the main organised racist group in the UK.

BNP's shock victory in Lincolnshire

And due to the recession, these are more volatile times.

But for all the racism, England and London* work well. On the whole British people are tolerant.

* I say "England and London" because I think London is like a different country to England and I have not lived and worked in other parts of the U.K. so my knowledge and experience does not extend so far.

I have always been told by many poles that it was slang. Anglik was the normal way of describing someone that was English.

Anglik is the noun and angielski is the adjective.

Anglik is a noun - English, British person
Angielski is an adjective - English person, weather

I am glad to see people start to differentiate between England, Britain and Scotland.
Scotland has a different culture and a different national identity.

Scotland has a fair share of idiots the same as any other country but as a whole, I would say Scotland is less racist.

This can be evidenced by the Scottish Government initiatives such as Szkocja Twoim Miejscem.
If anyone can evidence anything similar from the London Government I would be interested to see it.

Scotland has a Nationalist Government.
Compare the inclusive policies of the Scottish National Party to the policies of the British National Party.

I stand corrected then.

Sean I always like to say when people ask. I do not have a problem with nationality, which is true. I do, however have a problem with attitude. Maybe in these new found times and terminology, and of course being political correct, we should say "I have an attitude problem", and everyone is above the law.

I think your looking at it from the wrong angle, scotland throughout history has never had high levels of immigration, england on the other hand has always bore the brunt of it.

If scotland was suddenly flooded with migrants then iam sure they would be as angry as english people are right now.