A chapter of "Bieganski the Brute Polak" is dedicated to Black-Jewish relations. One cannot understand Polish-Jewish relations without context.
One theme of that chapter: high profile incidents perceived to be anti-Semitic involving blacks are treated much differently by powerful Jews than high profile incidents of perceived anti-Semitism involving Poles.
When Poles are perceived to have said or done something anti-Semitic, those Poles are spoken of as expressing a corrupt and evil Polish essence.
When blacks are perceived to have said or done something anti-Semitic, those blacks are spoken of as being mistaken, as meaning well but being misunderstood, or as being victims of white racism. Or the incident is trivialized. "It's no big deal!"
The above statements are about trends. They do not represent what occurs in all circumstances, and they do not represent how every Jewish person worldwide responds.
In any case, that trend is repeating itself in the Whoopi Goldberg controversy. The "most popular" reader comments in a New York Times story covering Whoopi's offensive and idiotic comment about the Holocaust are comments that forgive Whoopi, insist that she is a friend to Jews, or identify her as a victim of racism.
Would something foolish said about Poles get this kind of attention and indignation? I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteThe fate of Polish serfs was better than the one of Black slaves in USA, but far from success. The Poles were liberated (in Russian part od Poland) in 1864. Many peasants remained economically dependent from their landlords. They were illiterate, had no capital to start any business. Many pesants obtained 4 years education in 1918-1939 Poland. There existed economical and social conflicts between the liberated peasants and Jewish traders, traces of which exists as antisemitic stereotypes. Communist Poland organised or continued overpopulwated big farms as state ones, called PGR. Poland dissolved the PGRs after 1989 producing big unemployment. Such regions remain underdeveloped, eg. Masuria. There is a new project to construct infrastructure in former PGR regions.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree completely. I see this kind of condemnation quite frequently on social media as well.
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