Political correctness in Poland

A PiS-oriented vice mayor of Gdynia shared a picture and commented that black babies are born white but later they acquire proper colourafter bathing in such water everyday. He was critisized for racism because he not only suggested they should swim in dirty water but also used the traditional Polish word for a black race - "murzyński." I agree with the first accusation (nasty, indeed - is it their fault they have such water? ) and disagree with the other - Murzyn is all right to me.

He apologised to all black people who felt offended.

trojmiasto.wyborcza.pl/trojmiasto/7,35612,25023597,murzynskie-dzieci-rodza-sie-biale-rasistowska-wypowiedz.html#S.main_topic-K.C-B.5-L.2.duzy

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Guess being bathed in Evian water is the reason I came out cream white. Thanks Mom and Dad.

What I've always found funny is that certain blacks around here are nicknamed. For example, a Jamaican will be nicknamed "red" because his skin and more so his eyes have a sort of reddish tint. One black guy was called "blue" because he was so dark that his skin looked damn near black-blue. Another one was named Chris P***** so naturally we called him "crispy."

It has always been a neutral word in Polish and I find it bizzare why certain people want to make everyone believe the word is "racist".

The two leading clowns of the PF, jon357 and (the late?) Harry, always insisted the word was racist even if their knowledge of Polish was very far from being good.

Similar thing happened in Germany. A company had to rename their "Negerkuss" product (French: tête de nègre) to "Schokokuss" (Chocolate kiss) because a few people had complained that it was offensive. I can't see how an established, rather harmless word that dates back way over a century can all of a sudden become "racist".

I had that discussion few times and I don't get it either. I can see a point if the words does really have some bad connotations but not in thos case

To be fair, from what I know (which might not be that much) Neger is offensive in German... (I've only heard it used when the intent was to insult).

There was once a candy in the American South called 'n1gg3r babies' (mentioned in a book by Florence King)

That`s middle class` propensity towards political correctness. :):)

I think they believe the word is patronising - reminds of Murzynek Bambo from an old kid poem known to every Polish child. Bambo is a cute, a little naughty boy who still climbs palm trees. and wears a hip sash.

Ziem, isn`t it time to give up that Bambo image? :):)

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The problem with such images is that they unwittingly reinforce already ingrained stereotypes about black people!

It means they should withdraw the poem from kindergartens, schools and the book market. Pity - it is nice poetry.

So is "Br'er Rabbit and Br'er Possum" by Joel Chandler Harris here in the States, but, as with lawn jockeys and Aunt Jemima images across America, it sends disturbing signals about the intelligence as well as the role of African-Americans within our society!

As I said: nowadays it's considered offensive, but up until the 1980's nobody would even care. The same word was used in Dutch as well by the way, and in several other languages, too. The political correctness is a child of the 2000's. It goes too far very often.

But Bambo doesn't. It's a poem about lively black boy that likes to learn and that we would like as a shoolmate. So what disturbing signals are you talking about?


The difference is word murzyn still isn't.

"Neger" survives in the chocolate treat "Negerkoepfe", and yet I avoid mentioning it when I can.
Perhaps because the blacks I encountered when I lived in Germany were either half-German or originally from Nigeria who came to then Eastern Germany as university students and therefore so thoroughly fluent in the language as well as the culture, I never thought of them as anything but "German"!

However, the term "Schwarze" can be a bit denigrating, I will admit.
Much older German-Jewish emigres here in New York often referred to low-paid African-American domestics as such, and it's DEFINITELY not positive.

That lawn jockey was new to me. I read about it, unusal custom, indeed. In this part of Europe people keep gnomes - no controvercies. :)

Germany has her long beloved "Gartenzwerge", and yet they're completely inoffensive, save for perhaps appearing to make fun of LilliputiansLOL

Certain German children's stories, especially nursery rhymes from around the 19th century, frequently showed the "big bad wolf" theme in terms of a Jewish caricature, with the caption "Trust not the fox alone on the heath, nor the Jew at his word!", as a warning to little ones easily waylaid by some nice old man tempting them with sweets or candy!

So why do some people consider it racist, as Ziemowit claimed? I find this whole PC thing rather annoying, I have to admit. The latest and greatest here in the US is the so-called "cultural appropriation". When white kids wear dreadlocks for example, some clowns think that's offensive because it supposedly copies black culture. The world has gone mad.

Racist by association maybe.

Dunno, that seems to be a stretch.

You might be right.

tsk you must be a very blackwood leftie then, as you have no clue, the idea is to take over vocabulary and step by step take control over what people say to control what they think.

Is in fact a word murzyn racist, offensive or not at all is irrelevant. The crux of the matter is to a first step to shape people minds in a cultural war.


What people? Some foreigners on PF.

Murzyn isnt racist, was never considered racist and likely will never be considered racist. It's no different than wloch, cygan, arab, etc. Czarnuch would be more rscist and still that merely means someone who is czarny or black

What's funny is a lot of the words uses for nationalities might be a tad racist. I.e. wloch - Italian, a person who is hairy

Niemiec - German, niemiec comes from someone who "doesn't know" or "doesn't speak" while slowanie is from slowo a word and si slowanie is people of words (people who can understand each other's words) while niemiec is someone who doesn't speak or can't understand.

It's Marxism at it's best.
They try to instill their Marxist propaganda into a culture.

So?

If they don't want people to view them as lazy, welfare leeches, violent etc. then they should change their behavior.

Poles use to be called dumb Polak all the time in the USA. Now you never hear it. Why? Because polaks aren't all that dumb. There is so many educated and successful Poles that it's just become passe. If blacks stopped acting like n!ggers then people would stop viewing them as such.

No, Dirk!

It's not up to the minority in question to merely disown those among them who give their group a bad name. Rather, it is up to the majority among the majority group, in this case W.A.S.P. or white Christian Americans in general, to enlighten themselves with regard to those non-whites who live among them.

One "welfare leech" doesn't an entire ethnicity make! How about anti-Polish, let's say just "Polish stereotypes", ok? It that any more or less unfair than stereotypes which unfairly caricature African-Americans, Hispanics or Jews??

Where do we eventually draw the line?

I thought it is a result of political correctness and I also heard about court rulings in which the victims of enthnic mobbing at their worksites got compensation for being called dumb Pollacks.

The reputation for being "dumb" surely derived from the misconception that because a country is somehow lagging behind
their neighbors such as England, Germany or France in terms of infrastructure and technology, that the inhabitants of that
country therefore must be plain stupid.

How about the "dumb Swede" jokes? "My name is Jan Jansson, I come from Wisconsin....", even the cartoonish portrayal of
the somewhat backward-talking Swedish missionary in "Murder on the Orient Express", as portrayed surprisingly by Ingrid
Bergman, is but a further example of negative stereotyping, albeit rather harmless.

Well, in both cases, their detractors are now having the last laugh, aren't they!

@Lyzko

Oh bullshit. Why do Asians not have bad stereotypes? Because they don't do anything bad.

All stereotypes are based on repeated observations. If a group doesnt want to be negatively stereotyped then they should change their behavior. Its not up to the observers. The only thing that will happen is that observers will discuss a groups stereotype in private instead of in public. But that stereotype persists until that group as a whole stops or atleast dramatically reduces said behavior.

For example if blacks don't want to be seen as criminals then they should stop filling up the jails and not commit the majority of violent crimes. If Muslims dony want to be seen as terrorists they should stop comitting terror attacks literally everyday around the world.

That's why the dumb polak thing doesn't exist anymore. it's difficult to call someone a dumb polak when they tend have a better car, bigger house, and more money than the average American.

"Why do Asians........?"

!!??? Are you smokin' somethin' other than Salem Lights, dude? Some of the most pervasive of all stereotypes concern
Asians, e.g. the sneaky Chinese, duplicitous Japanese, the secretive, hermit-like Koreans.....

While some of these beliefs are based solely on Western, partcularly Anglo-Saxon interpretations of Oriental cultural practices,
such thinking abounds, having nothing to do with not having done anything bad!!

Again if they don't want to be perceived that way then they should change their behaviors as a group. Do you really expect people to close their eyes and just ignore repeated behaviors of a group whether it's Muslims blowing themselves up and raping women or blacks committing violent crimes? Hell even in e Asia especially china people believe that blacks are all criminals yet most have never even met a black person. Why? Because word gets around and blacks perpetuate those stereotypes by committing more crimes than any other group.

Perhaps it is YOU who should change their misperceptions of other people whose customs you do not or refuse to understand:-)

While I'll grant you, starting as far back as the Amnesty Act of 1964 under LBJ, allowing certain non-Western European immigrants from Latin America and Southeast Asia to emigrate freely to the US, America has let often non-English speakers to come to our country solely as "placeholder" aka low ballers who underbid native born US citizens, there's never any justification for blaming someone else for their problems, usually beyond their own control.

If someone's born short rather than tall, hooked-nosed instead of straight or aquiline, it's not THEIR fault, but rather ours for being so imprisoned by our value system that we somehow can't accept others who are different.

You and others, Trump, Bannon and the whole pack, are flying in the face of accepted Judeo-Christian convention, blaming the victim and rewarding the sinner!