How many Polish people of African descent, Sara Alexandre remembers when it was realized for the first time, seen as different. “For me it was in kindergarten,” says Alexandre, whose father Angola, describes an incident when she was excluded from the dolls game. “I was five years old and [another girl] did not tell me, you can not let a little ‘Murzyn in it. This was the first time I knew I was different,” A campaign against the word “Murzyn” – . To describe Polish people in black level and address used racial epithet – is to be at the center of an emerging movement in Poland with racial discrimination provisions. The movement that #DontCallMeMurzyn blacks activists and allies united under the hashtag shows how a renewed focus on anti-black racism inspired the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 and brutal police on the black community has become global. The movement that grew on killing heels of US police George Floyd now covers countries with significant diasporas African slavery and colonialism in places like Poland, where 97% of citizens are white. “The hashtag is mainly thanks to George Floyd,” Arinze said Nigerian born Nwolisa who lives in Warsaw and co-founder of the anti-discrimination movement Gate Foundation in 2014 with his wife Lydia. “Now people are saying:?, Why are you protesting something that happened in America” but the reality is that we need to stop something that Americans are facing, but we are in Poland [and] as people the opposite color. Because that is what we are facing. It [racism] is a disease. “Words are not just a symbolic landmark of anti-black racism, he says, but an undesirable notion that Black Poland offend find.” I do not want to go there and have people call mich, Murzyn ‘ “Nwolisa on.” This is very, very offensive, I tell you. “the states Polish dictionary just the word with black leather someone applies and leads after the linguist Polish Jerzy Bralczyk and Jan Miodek, you do not hold the same negative connotation the N-word in English is . the PWN site is the word with dark skin applies to someone, but it can also describe someone who is used to working hard and being exploited. but the experiences of people Black Polish show how the word is used in practice. One of respondents to a survey in 2016 of a dozen African international students in Poland has described as: do not wash, “Murzyn’sich … he likes to play among the trees … do not go to school. These are the three stereotypes that when they see a black man. [Sic] “More recently strengthened the criticism in a video on YouTube of five African-Polish women published to share their experiences of discrimination with anti-black. The video is spread over 51,000 points of view and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #DontCallMeMurzyn. “I hate that word and I try not to use it because it gave me a hard negative connotation,” says Marta Udoh, one of the women in the video. “Every time I hear that word, I feel like if someone close to my heart was scratching. “the five black women – Udoh, Sara Alexandre, Noemi Ndoloka Mbezi, Aleksandra Dengo and Ogi Ugonoh – which facilitates the discussion recently petitioned the campaign website Avaaz community the negative effects and connotations include under the word in the dictionary launched the Polish language published by PWN (Polish scientific publishers), the most famous publisher of dictionaries in Poland. in June Katarzyna Kłosińska, a prof essore linguistics at the University of Warsaw, published in other words, put a piece on the PWN website that the word is often in English as “Negro” mistranslated -and some of connotations- negative word, while closer has a definition would only objectively, that is, his “Black”. But if someone does not ask used, he added, people should listen. It is unclear how many blacks people living in Poland, one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in the world. The 2011 census was the first called on nationality or ethnic origin, but while there are detailed Slavic ethnic minorities is not an option select Black – “other” one alternative to tick informal assessments that the number a few thousand, which helps to explain why black people are often still considered an unusual sight there. Ndoloka Mbezi who identified as mixed race or black depending on the context, says there is little awareness that free forms of building these, both uncomfortable and are not acceptable. “I remember stopping people in the streets … my family to say things to my mother like, Oooh, a beautiful child like! Check out her curly hair, her skin tone! ‘” Says Ndoloka Mbezi, who now lives in England. Ugonoh Nigerian whose ancestry is said that people in Gdynia, a Polish city on the Baltic Sea, used to take pictures not required of her and her sister. But racism in Poland can also be violent, and laced with ridicule and hostility. Nwolisa says that in his nearly 20 years, has seen it all in Poland, called by a monkey, while the zoo to visit with her children to actual physical violence. “We met with many incidents of racism and we [never once went] to the police station,” he said his wife Lidia Nwolisa, is ethnically Polish. “Why? …. Because instead of protecting us, the police will be racist.” One study found African and Asian immigrants in Poland Marek Nowak and Michał Nowosielski 2011, which “did not record a large proportion of racist crimes in Poland.” Nwolisa says her four children, ranging from nine to 17 years also experienced racism at school. Polish perception of blacks in children’s literature flooded in American minstrel and racist caricatures were informed Tracy C. Davis and Stefka Mihaylova writes in a chapter of the book of Uncle Tom cabins, a treatise on how to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel good intentions was interpreted like his world tour. in Poland, the translation of the novel, most of which differs substantially from the original text were children set, and nostalgia as anti-communist propaganda in the national curriculum while was served. These productions can only helped to perpetuate the existing racist stereotype as a black character in Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel In Desert and Wilderness, activist James Omolo wrote in 2017. In the novel, the young Polish Staś saves Kali, a black boy, “broken” talks English, by a horde of violent Muslims. “Dark Continent” Tropical abound. “Morality of Kali” immortalized, which means “double standard” out of the book world has Kali in Polish in the words If someone takes Kali cow, it’s a bad action. If Kali takes someone cow, it’s a good deed. “A 1924 poem by Julian Tuwim, Murzynek Bambo, (the small Murzyn Bambo) has been criticized for infantilism and othering Violent blacks, according Ohia Amaka Margaret Nowak, a researcher at the University of Breslau. But it is still taught in some schools . the Nwolisa family now channel their trauma into activism in local protests that also participate in the realization of workshops through their foundation. Acclaimed photographer Rafał Milach took a photo of his daughter Bianka protesting with a sign “Stop calling me Murzyn” Polish newspapers read by prominent as Gazeta Wyborcza was collected. young women who participated in the original video #DontCallMeMurzyn continued to invite more than two debates, hoping that the campaign will gain momentum. the recent re-election in Poland by a right-wing government for the rights of homosexuals and apparently involved against racism for blacks does not bode well, they say, but the fight is qu ello to set aside too important. “Yes, the elections have an impact on us,” says Ugonoh. “And while I’m afraid I refuse to give up. And I refuse to remain calm when I see injustice.” Keep the hope that Poland, which suffered nearly a century of occupation and dispossession, but able to understand the need solidarity. “Poland is so much potential,” says Ugonoh. “It ‘a country that has gone through so much pain. So if a country has to be able to relate, empathize, Poland should be. And I really just think that we can heal together.” Photo copyright Rafal Milach-Magnum Photos
#DontCallMeMurzyn: black women in Poland fueled the campaign against racial slur
