Why are Polish Americans mocked in the American media?

Yep! The Righties are mostly fair and nice about Poles and other groups in general. We're cool like that. B)

S'tupid topic. Total BS. How are they mocked than any other group?

Sometimes elements of the American media can disrespect an ethnic group.

Italian American Groups have protested the portrayal of Italians in the new MTV Show "Jersey Shore". They feel it mocks Italians.

Italian American guy hits Italian American Girl in face
youtube.com/watch?v=vcd2u2gejeY

youtube.com/watch?v=_Un0yTWugew

youtube.com/watch?v=rexAijqKgQI

While I can't speak for the entire USA, the old adage (to express a negative) "Is the Pope Polish?" was common where I grew up.

John Paul II certainly changed all that. The adage came into immediate disuse after his 'ascension' to Pope (for obvious reasons).


Me too. I also like N. Chomsky and N. Finkelstein.


Gee, I guess your experiences speak for those of others.


There was some of that during 'The Godfather' - Meyer 'Lansky' Suchowljanski and Benjamin 'Bugsy Siegel' Siegelbaum are not exactly Italian names.

Take the word "Polish" and substitute any other ethnic group. The jokes are still the same.

Why are you so thin skinned about this, especially since you don't live in the US. And I still think you're a troll. You can't even be bothered to register.

The image question has long been the concern of conscious, active PolAms, although admittedly they do constitute a minority. Most are concerned only about money and consumerism.

Indeed, most Americans rarely if ever think about Poles, Poland or Polonia and may go through life without ever meeting one. But to conscious, thinking PolAms the negative image often attached to things Polish when they do turn up in the mainstream media is a cause for concern.

As already noted, there are multiple reasons for the negative image and non-image including:
-- Polish immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the largest single group of Central-East European bread-seekers that came to America, and naturally had to take all the arduous, low-paying jobs;

-- The absence of an independent Poland meant that much of what made its way into the American mainstream about Poland came from German government, scholarly or media sources (and the Master Race mentality predated the Hitler years);

-- Unlike Jewish immigrants of the same period who saved up and sent the brightest of their kids to college to become a doctor, accountant or lawyer, Polish immigrants sent all their kids at age 16 or so (I'm speaking of the late 19th and early 20th centuries!) to the car factories, collieries, steelworks and abattoirs to increase the family's pay packets;

-- Poland's interbellum period was too short for any serious positive image-building, and in the US the image of Poles churned out by Hollywood was less than favourable (see Prof. Biskupski's 'Hollywood's War on Poland'). The pro-Soviet slant of WW2 propaganda reaching the US only helped entrench negative sentiments towards Poles;

-- Gomułka's 1968 anti-Jewish purge set off America's stand-up comics and other entertainment figures (most of whom are of ah, er, um...Norwegian...or is it Bolivian ancestry?!) and what could have been merely a passing Pollack joke phase (other ethnic joke waves had come and gone) was turned into an all-out smear campaign to deride and ridicule the Polish people;

-- It's easy enough to point the finger at external forces, so it should be stressed that Polish people are also to blame. Although they may be at each others' throats in their closed Polonian circle, they are known for their timidity, passivity and lack of assertiveness vis-à-vis the outside world. That has included both their ineffectiveness in combating Pollack jokes as well as their failure to convey a positive image, creating things with universal appeal and being culturally productive (music, books, films, etc.). Even now, most educated PolAms prefer safe, secure and well-paying jobs in business, medicine, accounting, law, etc., but how many PolAm singers, novelists, actors and others performers, film directors, script writers, journalists and academicians (esp. historians, political scientists, cultural anthropologists, etc.) are there? A successful PolAm dentist may have a grand house in the burbs with swimming pool and three pricey cars, but professionally he is not in a position to propagate the Polish heritage in the American mainstream the way a book author, film director or playwright can.

This show is on CBS, the most watched broadcast television network in the United States right now. The way her Polish family was presented is how still most Americans sees Polish people.

Unfortunately you are right and I don't think it is ever going to change.

I heard from the Polish guy who some years ago took screen writing classes in Hollywood. He said that they have those "ready to use" scripts' descriptions for every nation under the sun. When it comes to Poland the script was: many pictures of saints on the wall (when describing Polish home) and farmers in lousy clothes when describing Poles (think WW2 documentaries). When he protested he was told to shut up and that those scripts were "time proven and reliable".

Any links for that?


That would have been the Germans...
/wiki/German_American#19th_century


Nah...t'was the Germans all the time! Even torturing them in the USA...


There must be a German somewhere making this series!!!

Would you like to share something with the forum, BB? ;)

over reacting a bit

I find it hilarious and quite pathetic that whenever there is a polish woe the finger pointing goes to Germany...even as far as the US.

The US was Germany's enemy in two world wars but still german influence should have been so strong to powerfully influence and build a negative polish image who was not only not an enemy but an ally??? Sure...in polish eyes quite possible...

You are all paranoid whiners!

so don't mess with us !



anyway you are wrong

How do you explain the waves of Polish jokes through the years? BS


BS Take Central-East out of your statement and the same holds true for all, Irish, Italian etc. hell even Asians Chinese coolies to build your railways ring a bell?


Joke of the day. Scholarly my a**, most don’t even know where Poland is, besides wasn’t there one here looking for the map of Poland from 1800’s? Media sources? Can’t argue with that.


Urban Myth.


Mostly propagated by one such immigrant group to America, must have been Bolivians.


Blame it on the Soviets, what? Americans are incapable of their own propaganda? American GI’s were fighting alongside Poles on the western front. Surely they had to look to outside sources to have an image of Poles, as they themselves knew nothing about them. BS


Another excuse for those Norwegian Hollywood types.


Couldn’t agree with you more.


One look at this forum tells you how timid; passive they are when it comes to their heritage.


Organizing and attending Pierogi Fest or any other community based event to share their heritage with their immediate neighbors is not propagating Polish heritage or positive image? Oh wait, Pierogi Fest, there’s a hidden joke there somewhere. BS, another dumb excuse, pathetic.

As a land of immigrants, America has been awash with ethnic jokes of ervery kind. For the sake of scholarly disucssion (no racialism intended) they tagreted Pollacks, Bohunks, Hungies, Ukies, *******, Kikes, Krauts, Frogs, Spics (Mexicans), Micks, Wops, Dago, Japs, Chinks and other assorted slit-eyes, Scandihoovians, Canucks (Canadians), etc., etc. As I have already pointed out, these joke waves CAME and WENT. That would have probably happened to the Pollack jokes of the 1960s were it not for Gomułka's anti-Semitic purge in 1968. Unable to get at the red Warsaw regime, the opinion-moulders of America's news and entertainment world had to settle for the next best thing: Polish Americans who were on hand. Instead of the normal 2-3 years, the Pollack joke craze lasted close to two decades. What really put an end to it (although occasionally it still resurfaces) was the election of a Polish Ponitff and Lech Wałęsa's Solidarność revolution.

* The moderator's asterisks (*******) have replaced the N-word. (N like Norwegian, of course!)

None come even close to Polish Joke.


Are you sure?


Another of those Urban Myths. Communist Jew is not a religious Jew; besides what would Americans care for an internal power struggle of the communists themselves. Sure, paint it as anti-Semitic event, make up a few Polish Jokes and call it a day. You just reaffirmed my belief in one particular group responsible for that wave of Polish Jokes with that statement.

Do PolAms change their last names to avoid mockery?

For an easier life I'd say with respect to confusion over pronunciation etc.

E.g. Kietel is not Harvey's real surname, neither is Kinski the real surname of Nastassja

Lol. True, we do tend to bash everyone equally.
But even so, it's a bit of a stretch to consider silly jokes as proof of underlying hatred.


Notice how our biased PC (here on PF as in our real world) only protects blacks while everyone else is fair game.

Shame nothing can be done to combat those jokes because media are owned by Jews who won't allow it

There we go. It took a while to come out, but somehow I think we all expected it.

what jokes? there are no jokes... stop stirring because it stinks...

Haven't you seen this YT link a few posts above? It clearly shows that those jokes still exist in american media (owned by Jews)


How can we avoid this matter if it's the core of all problems? Look at Russia in 90's. Jewish oligarch Berezowski controlled public media and with them he could practically lay off every politician whom he didn't like

Liberalism is the core of all of society's problems; not Jewism!

^Guess who implemented it

President Obama makes deals with Russia at the expense of Poland's long term security (removing U.S. ballistic missile degense system from Poland on the anniversary of the Sept. 17 Soviet invasion), and you are worrying about Polish jokes. How about becoming more active in American politics to avoid another Yalta sellout? Remember FDR meeting with Polish-American leaders in front of a pre-WWII map of Poland while he was making deals with Stalin? There are more important issues at stake for Polish-Americans and Poland than Polish jokes.

There no point in discussion with no-registered voice, chances are you discus with a troll.


Are you Jewish ?

Reality - am I supposed to be trolled by your post?

you mean trilled ? yes !