Should I expect racism as a 'black' woman in Poland

Don't be silly, Dolno.


More than average in PL. Have you spent much time in Lodz?


Not for you, not for me. For some, sadly yes.

I'm with jon on this one......and i live in dolny........and english people stopped writing white power years ago(-:

More than average in PL. Have you spent much time in Lodz?.

Most UK cities suffer from graffiti also, but they have greater resources to clean it up quickly (Rightly so to avoid riots), Poland suffers from a few random idiots no differently to other European countries.

While we are on the subject of Racist graffiti, there is no greater example than that in the cities of Bristol and Liverpool where all the great municipal buildings are built from the spoils, and cemented by the blood of the slave trade, You will not find this legacy of hate and intolerance in Poland.

So as a Black visitor you are welcome here by the majority of Poles.

I think more than a few. Not quite on the scale of Athens but omnipresent in the cities.


Black visitors (and residents) usually have a good time here. Though exercising more caution than they would back home is appropriate.

"exercising more caution than they would back home is appropriate."

Here we agree jon this is true for any visitor to any country in the world, I lived in Texas for six months, merely my display of tolerance at times caused me issues with some of the random lunatics that you would find down the local sports bar.

Poland is no Rhodesia never has been never will be.

Yes you are trolling mate.

Openly gays in Poland :

Robert Biedron - Mer of Slupsk

Marcin Szczygielski - journalist ,writer

Tomasz Raczek- Journalist film critic

unbelievable how some poles see their country , to try and describe it as anything other than racist and nationalistic is deluded.
i m not preaching......its your country, do what you want but please can you refrain from from the whole congenial host routine. its misleading.

i was referring to openly gay people that i personally knew after 11 years living here.
but well done you came up with 3 public figures more than likely living in rather cosmopolitan areas of warsaw

I think homophobia is like racism- Each country has some share of them but it their actions are usually suppressed by low
.Brexit is a good example- all low life racist rats are getting out of sewage now.

As per shave headed ( often football hooligans) you are right they should be avoided.

You've forgotten Maciej Nowak, Michał Żebrowski, Kasia Adamik and a few more. But that's only 6. There are twice that in the Tory benches in the House of Commons.

Nevertheless, although there may well be hassles visiting small-town Poland as a couple or if your appearance stands out, Warsaw is fine. I've had very little trouble (and in every case from feckwits that I repelled easily) in 20 years of living here. It helps if you look bigger and stronger than they do.

10iwonka10 we need to add

Anna Grodzka, elected to the Sejm in the 2011 Polish parliamentary elections as a candidate for the left-liberal Palikot's Movement, and was the first openly transgender Member of Parliament

We won't let the trolls here paint Poland as some kind of right wing intolerant society, we as a nation suffered greatly at the hands of the right wing Nazis, we will never forget this legacy , we fought against them in WWII, and we will continue this fight against racial hatred and intolerance.

It does not matter where they live they are openly gays- so it contradicts your statement.

I have been living in UK for 14 years so I also know how this 'tolerance' looks here. It is paradise no racists, no homophobia...Ha,ha really

You clearly know nothing about Poland. Statements Generalizing country of 40 mln are just stupid.

you lot voted in these bunch of muppets you have in charge now on the back of a few war refugees. you are intolerant!!
and you didn't do much fighting in ww2 because you were too stubborn and nationalistic to listen to french and british military advice........no german will set foot on 1 m of polish land blah,blah,blah. if you had actually just defended the vistula as requested then there was a chance,albeit small we could have avoided ww2.

I don't live in Poland so I am not up to date with all of them.

I am not sure if you ever read -I love Marcin Szczygielski books.

But Anna Grodzka is good example- She is transgender- I am not sure if you have any in UK Parliament?

One of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. Nevertheless her appearance does stand out - it's perhaps harder for her to 'pass' than most due to her height and of course she is very well known here. Nevertheless, before she hit the headlines she was subject to abuse sometimes.

In every country there's bad and good. Unfortunately in Poland there's a significant tranche of society who are not just passively but actively intolerant. Hopefully, in the areas a visitor is likely to be, there won't be many such people. Even most of the people who hold very racist views are likely to be polite to your face.

When I worked for a large firm here with several people of colour, both men and women, the ones with horror stories to tell were men with dark skin who had Polish wives or girlfriends. To a racist that can be like a red rag to a bull.

wonka....did you read what i wrote.......open gays that i personally know.......friends, colleagues .....people who work in bedronka

and i admit 20% of poles are decent people, the rest are carrot pickers. maybe this % would be better if anybody with half an education did nt flee the country chasing pound signs as soon as possible

Do you expect them to have big t-shirt with sign 'I am gay'- and with your opinion about Poland and Polish I don't think you have many friends there.

"openly gay" !! most of my polish friends agree with me, they do not live in denial of what their country is and i respect them for that, as i respect poland. sounds like i actually know your country better than you. maybe you should be on englishforum.com after 14 years??

I believe you. I think its hidden complexes so by nasty racist behavior they feel them selves more important.

It is not different to leaflets left i Huntington after Brexit- 'Polish vermin go home'.


Thank you for advice but I am still very Polish :-)

That was a horrible thing; I hope they catch whoever did it.

"men with dark skin who had Polish wives or girlfriends. To a racist that can be like a red rag to a bull."

Welcome to the UK 1970's, Poland has been a closed country for over 50 years, there is still work to do , love thy neighbor alf garnet and all that.

"you didn't do much fighting in ww2 "

We did our best considering we were one of the first to be hit by the new war tactics of blitzkrieg, we wiped our bloodied noses picked ourselves off the floor ,cracked the enigma machine, showed our skills during the battle of Britain , kicked the sh$t out of the crack nazi paratroopers at casino, landed our tanks in france, did our best (and died) market garden , i could go on. erm Tbruck etc etc..

Indeed. Unfortunately it's coming at a time when there are various tensions in Europe plus the malign role of the Internet and social media in whipping up hatred.


Just tell him to sod off. Pure trolling.

well get yourself back over here, trolling aside, poland has the building blocks of a lovely country. i m genuinely frightened by what is happening with the political situation here..........

if polish pride could be directed in a constructive way who knows what we could do here. i say we because i have 2 polish boys of 4 and 6 yrs old so it looks like i m in it for the long run.

not trolling.......we warned the government about blitskreig......hence defend the vistula until we could organise a bit of help.
unfortunately your army was run by old cavalry types. a bit like us in ww1.

Back on topic please

i perhaps was flippant .......i do not call polish fighting spirit into question

3legs , trolling aside, poland has the building blocks of a lovely country.

i have 2 polish boys of 4 and 6 yrs old so it looks like i m in it for the long run, good reason for us all to work together to build a better future.

Nice you have stopped trolling,

Just between us two don't worry too much about Polish politics, more bluster than anything else, one lot gets in then we get bored and vote another lot in then get bored then repeat.

"unfortunately your army was run by old cavalry types. a bit like us in ww1."

Sorry about that twas my granddads fault , after the Bolshevik wars we laid on our laurels and didn't re arm.

well, i have spent too much time in the village buying and selling and i think you will agree that the polish 'handlarz' is generally not the greatest representation of good character.. i ve recently started working with people in wroclaw and am genuinely excited about where i see that city going.

it is the old mentality or the communist hangover as i call it that gets my blood going........yes lets change it(-:

Makes my blood boil too, lucky I had parents from the II republic, we avoided the Soviet social engineering.

The youth of Poland are traveling the world they are opening up to other cultures and people of different color or race, I have great hope for the future

Should I expect racism as a 'black' woman in Poland
'White' people are the only race in the world you can still legally discriminate against.
You as a 'black' and 'woman' have more rights than anybody in todays world.

They're gonna love you. I hope you're not shy, because you'll be stared at wherever you go.

Much like W.A.S.P.s are still the only "ethnicity" in the US one can tease without impunity, eh Johnny?
Well, maybe the reason why whites are the only race in the world whom one can discriminate against, is simply because it seems that they are the ones throughout history who have done most of the discriminating, by virtue both of their sheer number and situation:-)

Don't take it personallyLOL

Back to blacks in Poland. I know of no other European nation today which has had even ONE black in their central gov't for as long as John Godson, formerly in the Sejm.

No, I said


Why Lyzko, I know you are a Jew but are you Black too ?
If so it would answer a lot of questions.
I always thought Poland had Black Jews.

So what would you say were his greatest accomplishments as a politician for each year that he served? What did he selflessly and substantially give back to Poland for the opportunities that he was allowed to enjoy and build a career upon?

You should also focus on Godson's leadership in working closely with other minority groups in Polish society to tackle the bigotry and discrimination they experience such as the LGBTQIA community which itself is headed up by the black gay rights activist and fellow politician Krystian Legierski.