I Am Not Your Pole by Dr. Ewa Sapieżyńska; Bieganski, the Brute Polak in Norway.

 

From Onet; full story here. Excerpts below.

A Polish woman conquers Norwegian bookstores. "I'm not your Pole", a bittersweet story about emigration

 

The book "Jeg er ikke polakken din" (I'm not your Pole) by Ewa Sapieżyńska conquers the Norwegian best-seller lists, and the Norwegian Culture Council has decided to deliver the book by the Polish woman to libraries all over the country. And so the discussion about what it means to be a Pole in Scandinavia, what racism is and where are its limits.

 

Anna Kruczynska

 

October 30, 2022, 07:24

 

In Norway, we systematically encounter worse treatment of minorities not only because of skin color, but also because of the country of origin - reports the situation of Poles in Scandinavia, Dr. Ewa Sapieżyńska, whose book "Jeg er ikke polakken din" ) storms Norwegian bookstores

 

Although the book is not yet available in Polish, the Polish woman's publication has caused a stir among Norwegians, revealing what many migrants in Scandinavia have been silent about for years

 

"Poles do not know how to smile or think, because they are horses. They work 14 hours a day," says one of the Norwegian employers about Poles

 

— Polish thinking in exile: "I'll bite my teeth, I'll last five more years, and then I'll come back to Poland and we'll build a house" - the sociologist explains the mechanism

 

…

 

I read all the publications that came out in Norway before the "Black Lives Matter" movement. Norwegians have sworn that there is no discrimination against minorities.

 

Scandinavian idyll - there is money, order, peace, space, respect for rights...

 

Meanwhile, in Norway, we systematically experience worse treatment of minorities not only because of skin color, but also country of origin or ethnicity. Reading and crying over stories of discrimination, I noticed that there are no Polish voices at all.

 

Meanwhile, Poles are the largest minority in Norway! According to statistics, nearly 105,000 people live here permanently. Poles. Norway is a small country with only 5 million inhabitants, so 105,000 Poles matter.

 

In fact, there are almost 200,000 here. Poles, if we take into account people coming to work seasonally on drilling platforms, on construction sites, in fields with potatoes or strawberries, as I started myself. These voices are not heard.

 

…For Norwegians, a Pole is a poorly paid worker who does not make demands, most likely speaks bad Norwegian and drinks a lot, or maybe he is a criminal at all.

 

…One Polish woman living in Norway wrote that she hears jokes about Poles being stupid at least once a week, some joke "how many Poles does it take to screw in a light bulb"...

 

In Norway they say "Polish working hours", when you work much more than Norwegians, they also talk about "Polish jobs", i.e. painting, cleaning, construction work.

 

…When you look at the list of bad words that Norwegian youth use in high schools, "Pole" ranks high, it is often used the same way as, unfortunately, "Roman" is used in Poland. Among this list, at the very top is a whore and gay, and below that is "Black", "Jew", "Pole", "Pakkis", meaning someone of Pakistani descent.

 

…In Norway I often don't feel seen as a human being, I am "only a Pole".

 

…I tried to forget about neighbors who asked me to take my Polish name off the mailbox because property prices in the area would go down. This is pure racism.

 

…The interviews conducted by the researchers show that if you are Polish, you are suitable for physical work, but you are no longer suitable for a hotel reception.

 

"Poles do not know how to smile or think, because they are horses. They work 14 hours a day and do not have to think," says one of the Norwegian employers about Poles.

 

…We bought a flat from a lady who turned out to be Polish. She was ashamed to speak Polish, she changed her name to make it more European, she changed her surname, she hid her origin. I tried to convince her: "After all, we can talk in Polish." She looked at me like an alien. She made me understand that it was a shame to speak Polish and switched fluently to Norwegian.

 

After many years abroad, I forgot for a moment that it was a shame to be Polish in Norway.

 

… It turns out that in Denmark he met the same aversion to Poles and Polish names in public places, especially where real estate could lose value, "because a Pole lives there".

Thank you to Jerzy for sending this in. 

Poland is Gray and Colorless in the Eyes of Netflix: An Internet Meme

 

This photo is circulating on social media with the caption "If Poland v Mexico were broadcast via Netflix." 

I asked a Facebook friend to explain the meme and Ian Barrs provided the following explanation, "It's a joking reference to the clichéd cinematic depictions of both places in modern TV and cinema. Specifically, the fact that anything set in Mexico will have a yellow filter applied to look permanently sunny, hot and dusty, whereas (as everyone knows) the entirety of Eastern Europe is permanently grey and all color tones are washed out and muted."

Robert Clary, Polish-French-Jewish, Concentration Camp Survivor, Hogan's Heroes Star, Has Died

 

An extraordinary life. See his New York Times obituary, here. 

Taboo Thoughts from Poland: Poland, Paterson, and Identity

 

Taboo Thoughts from Poland

 

As I settled into my LOT airlines seat, waiting for the plane to take off to Warsaw, I realized that I was feeling cozy. All my life I've been really self-conscious about how pale I am. Pale skin is thin skin and thin skin provides no camouflage. Every scar and eye bag, every wrinkle and knotted vein, is neon. "Black don't crack," black women boast. The darker the skin, the thicker. Thick skin wrinkles less and hides imperfections. Pale people like me look older than a comparable darker skinned person.

Dave Chappell on SNL Excuses, Expresses Black Anti-Semitism

On November 12, 2022, Dave Chappelle, an African American Muslim, hosted Saturday Night Live. 

Chappelle has a history of telling anti-Semitic jokes. See his "space Jews" joke. Chappelle's SNL monologue was anti-Semitic. 

Chappelle implied that Jews hold power over others. He began his monologue by reading, from a piece of paper, a rote and obviously insincere "apology" to Jews. 

“I denounce anti-Semitism in all its forms, and I stand with my friends in the Jewish community."

He then emphasized how artificial his apology was. "That, Kanye," he said, "is how you buy yourself some time." 

“I’ve been doing this 35 years. Two words in the English language you should never say in sequence: 'The' and 'Jews.'” 

Why should one never say these two words together? Because Jews hold power and harm anyone who points out this truth. Jews use their history of suffering to manipulate others, Chappelle went on to imply. 

"It shouldn’t be this scary to talk about anything. I’m getting sick of talking to a crowd like this. I hope they don’t take anything away from me. Whoever they are."

In other words, Jews forbid frank discussion, and those who attempt frank discussion "take things" away from those who attempt to speak frankly. 

Black anti-Semitism is, and has long been, a phenomenon that has caused death and harm to Jews. Chappelle excused it. 

Chappelle mocked sabbath observance, calling it "sha na na." 

"Kanye broke show business rules." What rules? Don't criticize Jews. "If they are black, it's a gang. If they are Italian, it's a mob. If they are Jewish, it's a coincidence and you should never speak about it." 

In other words, you can criticize blacks and Italians, but never Jews. Those are show business rules. 

"Kanye got in so much trouble Kyrie got in trouble." 

Chappelle pretended that he didn't understand why the movie Kyrie Irving had posted a link to might be understood as anti-Semitic. In fact the film, "Hebrews to Negroes," advances a black anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that Jews "stole" Jewishness from black people. This conspiracy theory inspired a deadly terrorist attack on a Jersey City Jewish grocery store in December, 2019. 

To Chappelle, this theory is nothing important. Though it is responsible for the murder of innocent Jews. 

Chappelle protested against the "longer and longer" "list of demands" presented to Kyrie Irving. "This is where I draw the line," Chappelle said. "Jewish people have been through terrible things all over the world but you can't blame that on black Americans. You just can't. You know what I mean? Thanks to the one person who applauded." 

"A fair punishment. Just post a link to Schindler's List and ya'll wrote your own captions," he said, doubling over laughing. 

"Kyrie Irving's black ass was nowhere near the Holocaust." 

"A news person was screaming about Kanye." Chappelle imitated a white woman speaking. "'Mental health is no excuse.' Yes it is, bitch!" 

"I don't think Kanye is crazy. I've been to Hollywood. It's a lot of Jews. Like a lot. There’s a lot of Black people in Ferguson, Missouri, doesn’t mean they run the place. You might go out in Hollywood and you might start connecting some kind of lines and you might adopt the delusion that Jews run showbusiness. It’s not a crazy thing to think but it’s a crazy thing to say out loud."

Why is it a crazy thing to say out loud? Because, as Chappelle made clear, Jews hold power and punish those who speak frankly. In short, Chappelle's monologue was an anti-Semitic hate screed. 

 

Bieganski Talk, Warsaw, Poland, November, 2022

Very impressed by and grateful to the Polish patriots who made my presence at this conference possible. Bravo!