180 upvotes, 25 direct replies (showing 25)
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 watchingthedeepwater at 28/07/2021 at 22:05 UTC
27 upvotes, 1 direct replies
do you have kids of this age? because i do and while i was spared (living in kraków’s affluent neighborhoods), i’ve heard many, MANY stories of kids being refused from private kindergartens (“it’s too expensive for construction workers’ kid”) or mistreated by teachers in schools. The only positive thing in this is the outrage i see among many polish parents when they learn about it.
Comment by gamma6464 at 28/07/2021 at 20:34 UTC
102 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I'm sorry to hear that. You guys really are brothers and sisters to many of us.
Comment by ukrokit at 28/07/2021 at 21:39 UTC
37 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I've been told to go back to my country on the streets by random people. One dude even told me that he "hopes Putin kill's all of us for Volhynia". That's why I try to keep my voice down when speaking Ukrainian.
Comment by [deleted] at 29/07/2021 at 02:30 UTC
16 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My Polish family is discriminated against, but so many of them discriminate against others. People just need someone to feel superior to. Puerto Ricans I've heard hate Dominicans, etc...
So sorry you've had to deal with that!
Comment by hot_lava_poured_in at 29/07/2021 at 05:19 UTC
16 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As a born in Czech republic and now living in Poland I second this. Many of Czech people will believe they are better then Poles. But Ukrainian people are even lower in their eyes. Jesus Christ monkey balls, we shoud be proud to be European and stand together, otherwise Asia will eat us alive.
Comment by muahahahh at 29/07/2021 at 08:43 UTC
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I had a situation, when some random drunk poles wanted to beat a ukrainian guy in Gdańsk, but to drink with me, a belarusian. That was super weird, since I am also a person from the east, but they kept saying that have no problems with Belarusians, only with the Ukrainians.
Another situation was when my mom came from Belarus to Warsaw for 2 weeks to exchange work experience in the children's health center, she stayed at some hostel where Ukrainians were living, and doctors at the health center were offering help to my mom to find another place to stay, because "Ukrainians are bad and it can be dangerous to live with them even two weeks".
Comment by redwhiterosemoon at 28/07/2021 at 22:38 UTC
48 upvotes, 0 direct replies
There should a separate post made discussing discrimination of Ukrainians in Poland! It would help raise awareness to such issues. I would be interested in reading about it.
Anyways, I am really sorry that you faced discrimination! I am sorry for all the poles who mistreated you. Sending you hugs!
Comment by samaniewiem at 28/07/2021 at 21:36 UTC
41 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I am very sorry for what has happened to you and your friends. Sadly our propaganda media do a lot to build distrust towards Ukrainians. Every one of you i have ever met was a nice person and i hope at some point Poles will step down from their high horse and start acting like people. IDK if that helps, but poles don't like other poles too.
Comment by [deleted] at 28/07/2021 at 21:42 UTC
47 upvotes, 2 direct replies
As a Polish guy I think Polish people behave towards Ukrainians the exact same way Germans behave towards Poles. It’s sad.
Comment by testo100 at 29/07/2021 at 05:35 UTC
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As someone who lived and studied in UK I would say you guys have similar situation like poles in UK. People think that Ukrainians are dumb and can do only basic stuff, they steal and drink and so on and so on. Just ignore those xenophobic idiots. Also there is the fact that Ukraine celebrate war heroes that for us are war criminals and some people are annoyed by that.
Comment by [deleted] at 29/07/2021 at 05:25 UTC*
5 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by [deleted] at 29/07/2021 at 13:46 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
As Polish I can tell you that for most of that people history is the case. I mean I don't support it but the biggest reason for hate towards Ukrainians is history of II WW.
Comment by [deleted] at 07/10/2021 at 23:08 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Kinda late, but every Ukrainian person I had a chance to meet in Kraków was super sweet and warm and I absolutely loved them. I hope more and more Poles will be open to our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. Also, I absolutely have to visit Ukraine, such a beautiful country!
Comment by TPosingRat at 25/08/2021 at 10:18 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
My friend is half French and he's being mocked because of that. Some of his schoolmates often call him ,,frog-eater" or ,,la baguette gay".
I think that people will always treat someone as a second-class human only because he's somehow different than others.
Comment by Coast_of_Life at 28/07/2021 at 22:10 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Obviously the poorer country is always way more welcoming towards guests of the richer one than vice versa. Ukraine is basically Poland's Poland
Comment by hellykitty27 at 29/07/2021 at 06:17 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I honestly wish there was more open discussion about this. The whole logic to hate Ukrainians is they come to Poland and they "leech" off the poles; meaning students come here and get a free ride through university meanwhile Polish natives pay for university. Also they come here and just claim unemployment and use the social services and yet again they arent Polish. Literally like someone took the script of why Germans hate Polish and applied it to why the Polish hate Ukrainians. And add some sprinkle of Poland is only for Polish.
Comment by [deleted] at 28/07/2021 at 23:04 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
See my rant :/
Comment by TPosingRat at 29/07/2021 at 09:30 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It's kind of sad.
Some people will mock others for being an immigrant from a poorer country than they live in. Poles will mock Ukrainians, Germans Poles and so on. Fortunately, happens only with local plebs that think they're any kind of superior to foreigns, because they got luck by being born in a richer country that them.
Comment by azurevin at 01/08/2021 at 21:28 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I wouldn't blame kids for in-school discrimination, nor even their parenst in most cases, as adolescence is such a turmoil and chaotic period in everyone's lives, these "*kids*" can't really be blamed for that, because they're not grown adults and definitely not fully conscious.
Even if your parents happen to teach you not to be a racist or hate on others "*just because*" they look differently, group and peer pressure can do some truly crazy shit and trump all reasoning.
Could I say I've never been discriminatory towards someone from another country while in school? I don't think I could say that with an honest heart, because even if I didn't directly (face to face) discriminate anyone, I sure as fuck did laugh at people different than me with my school "*friends*" when in a "*group*" - you know, the "*I laugh cuz they're laughing, I GOTTA FIT IN!*" way of thinking - for which I am very much ashamed. I believe I did as much as I could about that though - never being directly or openly against someone from another country but does that excuse me? I don't think it does.
Hey, at least now that I've grown up, I know that was bad and firmly stick to my own ruleset of not adhering to racism and whatever else stupid fucking shit's out there. I work with few eastern europeans on a daily basis and can honestly say mostly positive things about them and the interactions I've had with them. If anything, they put their knowledge of my language to shame with my knowledge of theirs, which is none by comparison.
Comment by gytis296 at 28/07/2021 at 22:42 UTC
8 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Bro Come to Lithuania,we love Ukranians
Comment by Kowaldo at 29/07/2021 at 08:53 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Things have changed recently no? I also had a problem with ukrainians when you first started immigrating to Poland en masse like 10 years ago. I didn't strictly not like you because you were ukrainians, but more because the first wave were mainly uneducated guys looking for manual work and they often got drunk and were very rude. Basically ukrainians in my eyes were equal to our own dresiarze or hooligans - because they behaved the same. Since then times have changed and more cultured ukrainians have come over and we are friends :)
Comment by Snoo_90160 at 29/07/2021 at 07:09 UTC*
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Comment by HoneyRush at 29/07/2021 at 07:59 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I'm Polish, born and raised. Those 30% of Poles being discriminating against Ukrainians ... yeah you're probably underestimating that. What is more f-ed up is that most of those people either know someone or was a person who was discriminated in identical way in western Europe.
Comment by 1116574 at 29/07/2021 at 04:38 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
That 30% seems kind of low. I would say atleast 50% from my experience (as a pole)
Never heard stories from children schools aswell, but later in life (16 yr old+) some isolated cases might arise.
It is quite a shame really, that after sharing same crappy communism system and only a decade ago being on an economic level comparable if not worse then Ukraine is today, with busses full of Poles going to German farmers and UK toilets, not unlike Ukrainians coming to Poland, people already forgot and think of themselves as somewhat better.
Comment by BlueEchelon at 29/07/2021 at 07:57 UTC
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Maybe you don't know about our not plesant time in history. When Poles and Ukrainian was slaughtering themselves (civils, kids etc.), Where whole viliges was burnt and killed to a last person. I know it's bad time of ours countries. But some poles might have problem with one thing, your National heroes who started it (it may be not accurate who started it but in Polish history books you started it) Masacre of Volynia.
And yes we were no better we got our revenge but in some minds it might be a reason to hate you 😔