It was recently Poland week in the UK based Guardian newspaper. As part of this ongoing feature the newspaper published a daily stereotype about Poles and Poland, for example that the women are beautiful (generally true), the roads are rubbish (most definitely true) and that they drink lots of vodka (..of course!).
Another one of those stereotypes was that Poland is a nation of homophobes. From my experience I disagree, although the people I told about it gave mixed and surprisingly lukewarm responses; whether or not they agreed it didn't seem like such a big deal - perhaps that is telling. On the topic a local man has recently taken it upon himself to march around the town centre waving a placard about homosexuals being evil and going to hell and handing out leaflets about it. While of course this doesn't apply to all people, I have heard that in Poland there is a train of thought that homosexuality can, and perhaps should, be cured.
Thinking about this brought me to tolerance as a whole and I'm happy to say that as foreigner I've had nothing but a warm and friendly welcome from Poles since I moved here. Unfortunately I've heard a few stories of people who haven't had quite the same positive experience and that seems to be connected with skin colour. Ethnic minorities are few and far between and I expect that any problems are largely due to that fact; in Torun it's quite uncommon to see non-white people walking around so I guess they attract some attention, sometimes that's negative. At the weekend I overheard a guy shouting at a black man asking him where he was going, using the 'n word' and telling him he was hungry, I guess that you can expect a black person is a tourist in Poland so they could be an easy target for beggars.
I don't for a second think that Poles generally are racist but I do think that racial awareness is quite low among some people. In time as more people visit Poland there will be much more ethnic diversity and I expect some things will change. Poland is a great place and I hope everyone that visits it is welcomed the same way I've been, a few bad eggs could leave a bad impression.
It's easy to brand Poles racist and homophobic. They are not...but simply they are lacking the tolerance because due to their history. Certainly, they are becoming more and more tolerant (thanks mainly to the Poles who have lived sometime abroad and also to the increase of foreigners coming into Poland). Still they do have a long way to go. Often my students in my former school would refer to black people with the 'n' word. They were amazed that it was such an obscene word and they would use it freely...thanks to the US gang culture portrayed in films and music. This is simply a lack of education and awareness. Time will change their attitude.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago there was a pro-homosexual campaign whih posters around towns, etc. Like in the UK a lot of people didnt think twice. However, there was a minority who still openly went around and graffit'd the posters. Guess it was that guy with the placard. He wouldn't survive 5mins abroad (especially in San Francisco or Brighton!!).
It's a good job I didn't brand them racist or homophobic, like I said I disagree with the homophobic stereotype but there are of course minorities who have earned Poland a bad reputation. And your story about your former students is exactly what I mean about racial awareness, I don't think it's a case of racism but they are unaware of the implications of that language, at least by our standards. It may be down to cultural, religious and historical differences in some cases, and in others perhaps racism and homophobia are present - but that's the same everywhere unfortunately.
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