https://www.reddit.com/gallery/otc52w
created by redwhiterosemoon on 28/07/2021 at 15:24 UTC
1701 upvotes, 94 top-level comments (showing 25)
Comment by RottenCleric at 28/07/2021 at 18:57 UTC
196 upvotes, 4 direct replies
I also was denied a flat because of my very Polish sounding surname. If looks could kill, the landlord would have been accused of murder after she heard me name. The looks she gave me.
Once in school a friend of mine asked if I can watch their bag, because they needed to go to the toilet. SOmebody, compltely not in our friend group or anything said "better don't let her (me) do it, she'll steal you things, she's from Poland." To this day I am not sure if this was meant as a harmless joke or if it was meant serious. I was bullied a lot in school.
My mom once overheared two foreign (middle-east region from what I remember) saying something along the lines of "All I need now are some Polish slaves."
Comment by jarvischrist at 28/07/2021 at 18:05 UTC
179 upvotes, 5 direct replies
I live in The Netherlands and speak Dutch. Whenever people find out my background they switch to English as if I'm an idiot. It's frustrating.
Comment by graceful_ant_falcon at 28/07/2021 at 20:01 UTC
54 upvotes, 4 direct replies
I live in the US and throughout my life I was constantly mocked for my accent, for my food, and for how I had different practices to my American classmates. Even teachers told me my food was disgusting and never stood up against the bullying. It’s better now because I no longer have an accent, but people still assume I’m a communist or a spy sadly.
Comment by RidingBullet at 28/07/2021 at 19:40 UTC
179 upvotes, 25 direct replies
Well, as a Ukrainian living in Warsaw for many years, I must regrettably admit that about 30% of Poles have truly discriminating attitude toward Ukrainians. This is not only my experience, but many of my Ukrainian friends as well. It was kind of shock to me, when I came to Poland first time, cause Poland and Ukraine have very similar culture and language. And in Ukraine, during my times, attitude to Poles was always warm and friendly, like to our brothers. So it was slightly disappointing discovery. One good thing to mention is that I never heard of any discrimination stories of Ukrainian kids in schools or kindergartens. So there are hope.
Comment by Koko_Jambon at 28/07/2021 at 16:46 UTC
225 upvotes, 4 direct replies
I could share many stories like this and it's so irritating that those Western cultures think they are woke with their progressive thinking about POC and LGBT but it's ok to discriminate Eastern and Central Europeans.
Comment by redwhiterosemoon at 28/07/2021 at 15:56 UTC
43 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Comments came from these posts (take a look if you want to read further):
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/neoj5g/why_are_eastern_europeans_overlooked_when_it/
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/neohui/why_are_eastern_europeans_overlooked_when_it/
https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/omvdp8/do_you_think_that_sometimes_discrimination_based/
Comment by [deleted] at 28/07/2021 at 19:36 UTC
37 upvotes, 3 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by Uliev at 28/07/2021 at 19:04 UTC
71 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Yeah. Western countries want to be tolerant towards certain groups but still shitting on central/eastern European people. So many bad stereotypes, everyone from this region is "Russian" and we are treated worse. I was in the UK and while searching for a job, they were only willing to give me low quality shitty jobs (i have a degree, and experience), and thought that I can't even speak English. Not to mention the way eastern European girls are perceived by some. "Easy girls, only for fun, show some $ and she's all yours"
Comment by Wololooo1 at 28/07/2021 at 17:40 UTC
125 upvotes, 5 direct replies
And im Living 6 years almost now in Poland, and i never experienced racism or discrimination, quite the opposite. Im from Greece. And to think that to the rest of europe poland has this image of having low tolerance towards foreigners, while Germany and Britain are welcoming and accepting nations.
Comment by Westminster_lime at 28/07/2021 at 17:30 UTC
56 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I'm from England but my family are polish at school and work people would call me Jew even tho I'm not Jewish or they would call me polark which some people would say jokingly but some people especially in England have a backwards view on Poland and eastern Europeans which is a shame.
Comment by [deleted] at 28/07/2021 at 18:34 UTC
25 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Seems abt right,its ironic how europe is only tolerant to other eu countries despite saying that everyone should be tolerated equally
Comment by Zach_Macaque at 28/07/2021 at 16:03 UTC*
63 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Seeing anyone living east of Germany as a half-brained ape has been a norm in the West for roughly 1400 years since slavs spread all over central and eastern Europe, so it's always a bit funny to me, when people are shocked about such discrimination. From my experience I'd say that probably 95% of Poles are completely oblivious to the fact, that opinion about them and slavs in general outside of Poland is very far from what they think it is.
Comment by santajawn322 at 29/07/2021 at 02:11 UTC
23 upvotes, 1 direct replies
What’s crazy is the way that Poles are treated poorly in the UK while every weekend (pre-pandemic) the mad lads were on cheap flights to Kraków, etc. getting drunk, fighting, and pissing in the street.
Comment by [deleted] at 28/07/2021 at 20:17 UTC
21 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by smurfolicious at 28/07/2021 at 23:16 UTC
20 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My parents are Silesian and moved to Germany (my dad fled 89, my mum followed 93), I was born in Germany and my parents always told me in the most insistent way to never talk about my family roots (which I didn't understand for quite a long time).
My dad had (and unfortunately still has) consistently racist encounters such as he needs to be stealing, because he's Polish, he needs to be stupid, because he still has an accent etc.
My mum wasn't allowed to immigrate to Germany (with actually having German parents because of history and Silesia and stuff) before proving she was not HIV positive and up to today people's first question is "where are you from?"
I haven't encountered any openly racist reactions to my family roots (yet?), but I am very careful to whom I open up about it - and there's still so many people here that think it's funny to state that all Polish steal or whatever.
Interesting fun fact: In uni when stating that I do understand Slavic languages to a certain extent, the reactions are always positive - until people get to know the reasons. From that point on I've sometimes been regarded like something exotic even by people who have known me for quite some time; so no chance I'll ever include these language skills into a CV. But denying one's heritage is also taking its toll, so we are always 'laughing' in our family that we have no homeland and no roots.
It still feels like a rather small price when reading about all your experiences and I am utterly sorry about you having to interact with all these people who cannot shut up the prejudices in their heads.
Comment by TheSuitGuy at 28/07/2021 at 20:30 UTC
18 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I's really heartbreaking to read these...
Comment by [deleted] at 28/07/2021 at 23:01 UTC
16 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was born in Poland and have lived in Canada since I was five. I never really experienced any discrimination here besides the kinds of things all immigrant kids have to deal with: getting made fun of for being foreign and learning to speak English. I was shocked during Brexit when I started seeing how much hatred Britons had for Poles. My whole life I've called myself European and really identified with European culture more so than Canadian culture, I never considered that maybe other Europeans would see me as sub human because I was born in eastern Europe.
Comment by Amliko at 28/07/2021 at 23:21 UTC
17 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As a Pole who lived his early years in Gibraltar I can say I've been treated like a lesser human. Kids in my class always insulted me, pushed me out of everything and kept commenting with homophobic jokes just because "I wasn't English". One of the worst years in my life as a kid.
Comment by [deleted] at 28/07/2021 at 22:54 UTC
16 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As a Hungarian who has spent 7 years in Germany (10yo-17yo) I can definitely confirm this. People in the west legit think that we are uneducated savages who only know violence and who are only good for cheap labor. Especially if you are part of lower-middle class. Western immigrants of course are treated as their own, but if you are from the East (even if you come from an EU country), they really make sure you feel like you are a lesser, second class European.
Comment by Mugendaina at 28/07/2021 at 21:46 UTC
14 upvotes, 4 direct replies
My dad works in Germany in a company where polish people aren't allowed take elevators and Germans are.
Comment by SensibleJames at 29/07/2021 at 08:31 UTC*
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
It sucks that this shit goes on. I like good natured teasing and winding up, but fuck these people.
The worst part (admittedly this is from the perspective of an English person) is the hypocrisy.
My friends are happy to joke about their reservations about Poland, but get real offended when I joke about anything to do with BAME culture.
If it’s all good natured joking, then why is one comfortable and one is not? Clearly it’s because they actually hold xenophobic views and when they are ‘joking’ they actually believe it.
I can’t believe how many ‘Woke’ people are so unaware of themselves.
Its stupid that people seem to think that Eastern Europe is culturally and technologically backward as well. I was showing some Polish music to some friends and they said ‘I thought it would just be a cheap version of Ed Sheeran’. I was gobsmacked at how someone could think 1) that there could be a cheaper version of Ed Sheeran than Ed Sheeran, and 2) How transparently ignorant they were.
Comment by starecz_bigbird at 28/07/2021 at 23:29 UTC
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I'm from Spain and last year a video went viral of a racist cunt attacking Polish workers in a house they were working on. It just killed me inside because they were so respectful towards him even though he was humiliating them with his words. I just wish he went to prison or something.
There IS racism, but not that much, I have to say. I love having to speak with slavic people at work for some weird reason.
Comment by Belevigis at 28/07/2021 at 20:45 UTC
36 upvotes, 6 direct replies
Racism in Germany towards Poles is a huge problem that nobody talks about.
Comment by Valaxarian at 28/07/2021 at 19:04 UTC
35 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Ah yes, classic "west good, east bad"
​
Human is the most fucked up species on earth
Also can I get a link to that thread?
Comment by hot_lava_poured_in at 29/07/2021 at 05:15 UTC
10 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Czech guy killed in UK. By bicycle chain to the head. The known murderer walks the streets. It's crazy that a guy high on weed gets a free pass on killing by smacking somebody with a chain in the head.