Memoir of a Polish-American Cleaning Woman & "White Privilege"

Polish and other Bohunk-Americans are in a bind. We are Bieganski the Brute, but we are also classified as "white," and as enjoying "white privilege." It's a particularly vicious bind, very well described by Mary Grabar in her essay, "Yes, We Are Bitter."

Recently I published "Green Vase" about my experiences as a cleaning woman, like thousands of other Polish and other Bohunk American cleaning women. In the essay, I describe being falsely accused of stealing something. 

Jennifer Swift-Kramer, my fellow professor, mentioned to me that my experience defies Politically Correct guidelines. Poor but white. A cleaning woman. Accused of stealing. This can't happen -- whites enjoy "White Privilege" and are never accused of stealing at the workplace; only "people of color" are. Check out Peggy McIntosh's essay "The Invisible Knapsack."

And please read "Green Vase" here. 

150th Anniversary of the January, 1863 Uprising

January, 1863 Jozef Chelmonski 

Aleksander Lesser image that includes Rabbi Meisels, who was active in 1861 (pictured here) and 1863. Source

Prolific Amazon reviewer Jan Peczkis wrote in to remind us that today is the 150^th anniversary of the January, 1863 uprising. Mr. Peczkis also recommended "Walka o wolno w roku 1863," a book about the uprising, which he reviews on Amazon here.

Polonians alive today who would like to honor their ancestors' heroism and activism could well begin by reading the three-part blog post on the current Crisis in Polonian Leadership, Organization, and Vision.

Martin Luther King, Jr, Universal Human Rights, and Bieganski

Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel. Source

Some Polonians believe that "the Jews" are the enemy, and that "the Jews" are responsible for Bieganski, the Brute Polak stereotype.

Some Polonians are convinced that the Brute Polak stereotype is all about Poland's good name. To answer those who say we are all Brutes, we must just say over and over, "Poland is great! Poland is great! Rah Rah Rah!"

No one reading "Bieganski" or this blog, and understanding it, could come to either conclusion.

The book and the blog adduce example after example of Brute Polaks produced by non-Jews. Just a few examples: Catholic publishing houses, Bill Tammeus, a liberal Protestant who blogs at the National Catholic Reporter, Dennis Miller, the Imus show, Barak Obama, NPR, and a Canadian museum. There are too many more examples to offer here.

Shouting "Poland is great rah rah rah!" just feeds the stereotype of Poles as none too bright, narrow-minded chauvinists.

Jews are not "the enemy." Jews are people who are also damaged by stereotyping. We will succeed, not by fighting against Jews, but by allying with those Jews who abhor stereotyping and cherish a significant site of the Jewish Diaspora.

The wise and successful Polonian will recognize, as Linda Wisniewski mentioned in her guest blog post here, that Polonia needs allies. Too, Polonia needs to reframe the discussion against the Brute Polak stereotype, not as a chauvinist exercise – "Poland is great rah rah rah" – but as part of the universal struggle for human dignity.

I deeply admire Martin Luther King's intuitive understanding of the Polish concept of "For your freedom and ours." King understood that his struggle was not just about African Americans, but about universal human rights.

If Polonians wanted to succeed in their struggle against stereotyping, they would adopt the unity, support, and organization emulated by African Americans in the Civil Rights Movement, and as depicted in the must-see film "Eyes on the Prize." And they would follow the plan of action described here.

Dr. King saw the kinship between African Americans, struggling to survive in the face of hate, and Jews. I share his sentiments, and the feelings of Poles like Adam Mickiewicz who recognized a kinship between Poles and Jews.

Quotes from Dr. King on Jews, Israel, and anti-Semitism:

"I cannot stand idly by, even though I happen to live in the United States and even though I happen to be an American Negro and not be concerned about what happens to the Jews in Soviet Russia. For what happens to them happens to me and you, and we must be concerned."

"Israel's right to exist as a state in security is uncontestable."

"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."

"I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews -- because bigotry in any form is an affront to us all."

"When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism."

Source of these quotes.

"We Must Nurse Our Children on Hatred of Jews": Who Said It?

Former Israeli Prime Minster Yitzhak Shamir famously stated that "Every Pole sucked anti-Semitism with his mother's milk." It's an oft-cited summation of the Bieganski Brute Polak stereotype. If you google it, you will find it cited on webpage after webpage, in published article after published article, for example here.

My mother was Slovak, not Polish. She spoke some Yiddish, because, like many Bohunk women, she cooked and cleaned for a Jewish family, and raised their children. I picked up what little Yiddish I know from her. We ate the Jewish foods she had prepared for her employers. She had Jewish friends, who visited the house regularly, and were included in important family events like funerals. I had Jewish boyfriends, and they visited the house, and my mother greeted them, as she greeted everyone, with food. The one time she fixed me up on a blind date, it was with a Jewish boy, the son of a friend.

Obviously this is an anecdote, not a thorough study of Polish child-rearing practices. Yes, there is anti-Semitism in Poland. The problem with Shamir's quote is that it essentializes Polish anti-Semitism. It makes it an inextricable aspect of Polish biology and culture.

***

Sue Knight regularly reminds us of George Orwell's classic book "1984." In that book, the masses of Oceania are encouraged to cheer blindly for whomever the government wants them to cheer. One minute they could be cheering for Eastasia and reviling Eurasia; the next minute the opposite could be true.

Recently Americans were urged to cheer for the Arab Spring. We were urged to cheer for the Arab Spring in spite of the hideous assault on Laura Logan, the graphic photo of a soldier stepping on a woman in Tahrir Square, and deadly attacks on Egypt's Coptic Christians.

We are urged to cheer the Arab Spring's election of Mohammed Morsi, who exhorted his fellow believers, "Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them. They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue."

I wonder if Morsi's actual exhortation to nursing children on hatred of Jews will ever receive any press or attention.

Mohammed Morsi exhorting his fellow Muslims to nurse their children and grandchildren on hatred of Jews: full story here.

The Arab Spring. Tahrir Square.

Poles: A Reliable Ally in Operation Foxley

An interesting find from a Google image search of "assassinate Hitler" source 

Operation Foxley document 

During WW II, the Allies hoped to assassinate Hitler. One attempt, Operation Foxley, hoped to make use of a Polish assassin. Otto Gross, L8 researcher, alerted me to this plot and I thank him for it. Otto mentioned to me as he shared this information, "It's interesting that the Allies chose a Pole as a potential assassin, given that nowadays Poles are so frequently depicted as collaborators with the Nazis."

Yes. The Bieganski phenomenon is part of an attempt, in recent years, to position Poles in the historical slot best filled by Nazis.

Yes, there was powerful and destructive anti-Semitism in Poland in the interwar era. Yes, there were deadly anti-Semitic Poles during and after WW II. No, the Bieganski project is not justified by either fact. Any questions? Read the book, as Prof. John Connelly might say: Read "Bieganski."

Otto Gross' original research on a little known WW II era mystery, the destiny of the L8 or Ghost Blimp, is here.

Some National Archives documents on Operation Foxley are here.

UC Berkeley Professor John Connelly Responds. Polonia Must "Read;" Stereotypes Are Not a Problem; Stop Being So "Riled Up."

Recognize yourself, Polonia? Are you all "riled up?" Have you done your reading?
Why should a scholar waste time talking to you? 

In a previous blog post, I reviewed Halik Kochanski's "The Eagle Unbowed."

I mentioned UC Berkeley Professor John Connelly's review of "The Eagle Unbowed" in "The Nation."

Subsequent blog reader comments mentioned John Connelly's review of "The Eagle Unbowed," as well. Those blog reader comments are visible beneath the review, linked below.

John Connelly's review came up in a subsequent guest blog post, also linked below.

I believe in dialogue. Dialogue is important. If I want my voice to be heard, it is only fair that I hear others' voices. Also, given how highly volatile Polish-Jewish relations is, it is important that each side hear the other, and not overreact. There is great potential for misunderstanding. We must strive to hear each other fully.

Given that Prof. Connelly's review was mentioned on the blog so frequently, by myself and others, I sent him an email inviting him to interact with concerned readers here. Here's what I wrote:

"I would really love it if you would drop by and respond. My blog readers are for the most part serious and concerned people. One is a published novelist who has published books about WW II, and will publish more in 2013, one is a Polish professor, living in Poland, one is the child of a WW II veteran, etc."

Prof. Connelly declined. I received his emails ten days ago and I delayed responding to them or mentioning them here. I delayed because I became upset when I read his emails. I wanted to give it time, to see if I was misinterpreting what he wrote.

I've given it time, and reread his emails, and they still upset me.

Prof. Connelly told me that it would not be worth his time to interact with a group of "riled up" people who "haven't done the reading." "The issue is not stereotypes." "You really have to do the reading." "I don't see a purpose in engaging critics of my review." "Those interested in the subject should read the basic literature and then we could have a conversation. I get requests from students all the time for opinions on matters from the past, but always refuse if the student has not first done some requisite reading." "I just cannot spend precious time going (sic) through that blog of yours and correct all the misconcpetions (sic)."

There you have it, blog readers. You have not done the reading. There is nothing about stereotypes here. Your words reveal your many misconceptions. And stop being so riled up.

Polonia is losing the war on the Brute Polak stereotype because Polonia is fighting it incorrectly. This response from John Connelly is acceptable because Polonia has failed to do exactly what Linda C Wisniewski tells Polonia to do in her guest blog post. Chauvinist Polonians insist that the Brute Polak stereotype is just about "Poland's good name." It is not. It is about the universal struggle for human rights and human dignity.

Polonia has not communicated that, and so a UC Berkeley professor can decide that anyone who argues that Poles are not essential brutes is a brute him or herself, someone who does not read, someone who is laughably or frighteningly "riled up" – worthy of being smeared, but not worthy of interaction.

The initial blog post that mentions John Connelly is here.
The subsequent blog post that mentions John Connelly is here.
Blog reader comments are found beneath each blog post.
Prof. Connelly's UC Berkeley webpage is here.

PS: I was a grad student at UC Berkeley. On that campus, years ago, one of my fellow grad students, Nick Schoen, told me I could not be Polish because I *do* read. 

A Polish-American Mother, Slave Laborer, Role Model, Child of the Forest, and Survivor

Teresa Guzlowski

Sometimes I think we Bohunks – Polish-Americans, Slovak-Americans, Lithuanian-Americans, etc, all have the same mother, or the same grandmother.

Get out your handkerchiefs and read poet John Guzlowski's salute to his Polish-American mother. She was a child of the forest, until the Nazis and Ukrainians arrived, killed, and committed unspeakable atrocities John does not detail here.

An excerpt:

"She survived the [Nazi] camps and she survived a life of working on factory assembly lines and in skyscrapers where she cleaned offices from midnight until 8 in the morning taking out other people's garbage and polishing the stains off of their desks.  And she survived the sometimes turbulent relationship she had with my dad and my sister and me.

If you could have seen her when she was dying, you would have seen that same desire to go on, to survive, even when there was little hope that she would ever be able to walk or talk or hear or breathe the way she had before her strokes.  For the last two years, when she and I talked, she would often say, 'Johnny, how can I live without hope?'"

For the full text of this moving salute, go to the Lightning and Ashes blogspot here.