Do you really think the American people of today are that prejudiced against Polish people on their own that when they see someone Polish they're going to go ridicule them?
You misunderstood me. What I was saying is that this type of jokes usually don't even pop up when there's nothing to joke about. I used Polish just as an example, it could be just as well Russian, German or anyone else.
What do you mean by level of the population?
The intellectual and cultural level of the population of one region.
But, Media has more impact then anything else.
I already agreed to it. I can assure you that our media in NC doesn't even mention Polish jokes or actually nothing about Poland at all. I bet it's different in Chicago.
Wouldn't you agree that making ethnic slurs in polite company is generally taboo in America today?
I'm not sure about this being a taboo but I just don't hear any Polish jokes at all.
As stated earlier in this topic, there were reports of people in the 70's in parts of the US with no Polish people, who thought of Poles along the lines of inferior intelligence jokes.
and I'm telling you that 99% of them didn't really mean what they were saying. To them it was probably just a joke and nothing else. If you asked them if they hate or dislike Poles, the answer would be most likely, "I don't care", "I don't know any Poles" etc. Definitely no deeper meaning to it.
Why would someone hate Poles if he never even met any? OK, people tend to repeat jokes once they heard them but usually they don't put any meaning to it. It's just a joke, that's it.
I agree that some jokes are not very nice but you won't achieve anything trying to fight them.
Like I said earlier, there are jokes about any other nation out there too.