IS "MURZYN" word RACIST?

But it would lack the same connotation. Murzyn would usually be black man in predominantly white society whereas bialas would be white man in predominantly white society...


I'd probably use their name

"Murzyn" is like saying "Black" but it refers only to a


, not an object such as coffee roast or the color of a Car. It's Like saying, "hey, that black man has stolen her purse!...", hence I'd say "Hey, ten murzyn zajebał Jej torebkę!"

Get it ?!?!

Right, and seeing as though Poland is a predominantly White society and Murzyn is a Polish word, it's all good.

:)

lol my thoughts exactly.

If u look up the word in a polish-english dictionary, it translates to nigger. :P

That must have been a useless "Pol-Am" dictionary, then.

All the Polish dictionaries I own translate it as "black person" (non-offensive), not nigger.

Czarnuch (offensive) = nigger - as I suspect you very well know.

well, we Poles here in Toronto simply call them, along with south Asians, brudasy.

Julian Tuwim - Bambo


How Murzyn can be offensive, we have even poem about Murzynek, wrote by famous writer Tuwim. Murzyn is not nigger - it comes from word Maur, we use it from XIV century.. We can not say about black people who live in Poland Afroamericans...lol..maybe Afropolaki ?? Lol, but it's ridiculous.

"Murzyn" is not nearly as racist as "Negro". Any word can be used in a racist way though. Anyway, this article explains clearly why "Murzyn" as such is not racist:

juraszek.net/czytelnia_czyobamajestmurzynem.html

Unfortunately, it's in Polish...

Polish HAS a really offensive word for a black person and it's not murzyn which is simply neutral

Bambus

Any noun naming people of a certain race can, with time, become racist. With a certain (correct???) intonation "murzyn" can be racist. In regular everyday use, though, the word simply refers to a black person, most commonly African in origin and is NOT racist.

There was a time when African-Americans preferred the term "black" as opposed to "negro." After sometime, when "black" had been used in the perceived offensive context often enough, they have switched to "African-American." It too will be replaced when, some day, they discover the word "African" to have on its own much too negative connotations.

OK, as a Murzynka, I don’t find the word derogatory. From my understanding, based on information from my numerous Polish friends, it is just the word used to describe someone like me.

The fact is, I am a black woman…..and if Murzynka is what it is in the Polish language, that is what it is……

I am aware that its’ meaning can change, depending on what words are used in conjunction with it.


The latter is deemed particularly offensive by some because of the white character (Eddie) frequently using terms like "King Kong", "Sambo" and "Nig-Nog" (and the black charcater returning the compliment with "Honky" etc). However, the programme was made to show the stupidity of racism, and the women in the series (wives of the men) are shown as sensible people who get along well, despite their idiotic husbands.

Thats right it was just good friendly banter before the pc brigade came along. It shows actually how great communication and interaction was at that time within mixed communities, now they would just stab each other if there was a difference.

Czarnuch is definitely not a nice word. Murzyn I wouldn't say is racist just out of date. As is Nergo.

Exactly. I've only heard it used pejoratively. Murzyn like it's English equivalent 'moor' just sounds old-fashioned.

Perhaps your particular circle does, but I doubt highly ALL Poles in Toronto do.

Anyway, it's funny that nobody here has mentioned the origins of the word "Muszyn" in this thread. It means "Muslim" and at the time of the Muslim attempted invasion into Europe, Muslims from the Middle East were about the darkest that Poles had ever seen or imagined. Thus, the name has been used to describe anyone of dark skin color. So, perhaps, yes, it is racist.

Bambo sure as h*** is. Is that even still around in Poland? I've never seen it there myself. I thought it was from around the same time as when whites in America were painting themselves in shoe polish except an extremely large area around their mouths in black and white films and making fun of blacks. Btw, did you know Mexico has an equivalent of this as a children's tv show now? Idk how long it's been around though.

Not exactly.
It stems from "Maur" - and "Maur", although used to describe Muslims (especially those from northern Africa), originally meant just "black".

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Maurus


That's quite close, however I would say "Murzyn" is used more often :)

Interesting. That's a very different version than what I've ever heard/read. You might be right. But if it based on "Muslim", that's imo racist.

In the end, every country has a racial slur for every other country out there.

Murzyn is as neutral as it gets.
In slang it also means backroom boy.

What do you think the rationale is for that?

The word MURZYN has originated in the times long before the Poles had any closer contacts with the blacks. It used to be, and still is, a descriptive word meaning a black-skinned person of African heritage. There has never been any significant black population in Poland, no history of black slavery - Poles had no need for a racist word to refer to "their" blacks. Recently, though, the PC brigade frowns upon any, however innocent, noting of a racial, ethnic, or even cultural (!) difference, calling it racist.

The origin of a word odd irrelevant. The use of a word is all that matters.

By the way, who are the 'PC brigade'?
.

That would by why your kin screams every time Poland is mentioned in any way other than sickly sweetness, right?

oh I expect they are friends of the 'femi-fascists'.
Any word is racist if it is used in an aggressive or derogatory way.

the thing is it is a regular word for a black person of African origin (other black people like Australian aborigenes or Melanesians or even very dark south Indians have their own specific names and are not typically called 'Murzyni' though it was a bit different historically)

if someone wants to call a black person offensively in Polish they use words like 'czarnuch' (extremely offensive - surprisingly enough 'czernoch' is a regular word for black person in Czech language), 'bambus' (literally 'bamboo' but it originates from 'Murzynek Bambo' by Julian Tuwim) or 'asfalt' (literally tarmac)

other neutral words for black people have typically different meaning to murzyn: czarnoskóry means literally black-skinned (but remember that Murzyn has a meaning of African black) - so Australian aborigene is equally czarnoskóry, czarny - is a touch too close to czarnuch to be an innocent word; Afrykanin doesn't equal to murzyn as there are Arabic, Berberic, and Chamitic Africans who are not Murzyni (and there are also white Africans after all - biali Afrykanie)


murzyn doesn't carry offensive load because it is a regular word for a black African person - it's like stating that Englishman or Pole is derogatory - if Polish person wants to be derogatory towards the English they say 'Angole' not 'Anglicy', likewise if English people want to use derogatory, dismissive term for Polish people they say 'Pollacks' instead of 'Poles'

Politically correct (PC) are those who seek to minimize social offense and are willing to sacrifice truth in the process, often ignoring or twisting unshakable facts, professing tolerance but themselves being extremely intolerant of anyone not sharing their views.


Some of them probably are, but gender is immaterial here.

We are disscussing the meaning of a word here, not my kin. By the way, you are stereotyping a whole group [kin] and that's exactly what racists do: stereotype.

I don't really know. It is a mystery... Maybe Poles see that way the contribution of the black people to the success of western countries?

Guys, whom certain people pay for writing for them things like PHD Dissertation, are called "murzyn".
Also, if you feel that you helped the company to success, then, instead of being rewarded, you are fired, sacked, whatever... For this situation, there is a old Polish saying, you usually bitterly say: "Murzyn has done his work, so you can get rid of him" (Murzyn zrobił swoje, można go usunąć)

So, by no means, the word can be considered derogatory.

That sounds pretty derogatory to me.

What isn't derogatory about associating a group of people with basic grunt work. If you disagree, why not propose that factories should henceforth refer to workers doing the most basic, repetitive unskilled jobs as 'Poles'. Would you consider that derogatory or not?

Come to think of it.......

gee Murzyn is murzyn just a word ! Why out of sudden there some nonsense about it being abusive or racist ?its pure nonsense !
If somebody want to be abusive or racist or anything, surly will find a way to do it regardless of wannabe-gurus
What is all that hassle about ? Just be a decent human being !