Racism in Poland: Difference between revisions

'''Racism in Poland''' in the 20th and 21st centuries has been a subject of extensive study. [[Ethnic minorities in Poland|Ethnic minorities]] made up a greater proportion of the country's population in the past, right from the founding of the [[History of Poland|Polish state]] through the [[Second Polish Republic]], than inthey thedid 21stafter century,World War II when government statistics showshowed that 94% or more of the population self-reportingreported as ethnically Polish.<ref name="stat1">Główny Urząd Statystyczny, [http://www.stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/gus/LUD_raport_z_wynikow_NSP2011.pdf Wyniki Narodowego Spisu Powszechnego Ludności i Mieszkań 2011] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021013327/http://www.stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/gus/LUD_raport_z_wynikow_NSP2011.pdf |date=21 October 2012 }}, Warszawa 2012, pp. 105-106</ref><ref name="census2002">[https://web.archive.org/web/20081004044820/http://www.stat.gov.pl/gus/45_4520_PLK_HTML.htm Polish population census 2002] nationalities tables 1 or 2</ref>

The [[Council of Four Lands]] created in 1581 was a Jewish diet presided over by community elders from each major part of Poland, another governing body was established in Lithuania in 1623. Jewish communities were usually protected by the [[szlachta]] (nobles) in exchange for their work administering the nobles' domains.<ref name="Ducreux" />{{rp|358}} As such, they were often on the front line in revolts against the lords of the land, as was the case during the Cossack revolts in 1630, 1637 and 1639. It is estimated, in particular, that 30,000 Jews perished from 1648 to 1649 as a result of the [[Chmielnicki Uprising]].<ref name="Ducreux" />{{rp|342}}

In [[Congress Poland]], Jews gained civic rights with the [[ukase]] (edict) of 5 June 1862, two years before [[Serfdom in Poland|serfdom]] was abolished and the peasantry was freed. 35 years later, in 1897, the 1.4 million Jews represented 14% of the population of the Russian-administered partition, which included [[Warsaw]] and [[LodzŁódź]].<ref name="Zawadski">{{cite book|chapter=Les Juifs en Pologne: des partages de la Pologne jusqu'à 1939|first=Paul|last=Zawadski|title=Les Juifs dans l'histoire: de la naissance du judaïsme au monde contemporain|editor1-last=Germa|editor1-first=Antoine|editor2-last=Lellouch|editor2-first=Benjamin|editor3-last=Patlagean|editor3-first=Evelyne|language=fr|date=2011|publisher=Ed. Champ Vallon|pages=475–502}}</ref>{{rp|478–480}}

In the [[Second Polish Republic]], from the 1920s the Polish government excluded Jews from receiving government bank credits, from public sector employment (in 1931, only 599 of 87,640 public servants were Jewish—in the fields of [[telephony]], railroads, administration and justice<ref name="Zawadski" />{{rp|483}}), and from obtaining business licenses in government-controlled spheres of the economy. From the 1930s, limits were placed on Jewish enrollment in universities, admission to the medical and legal professions, on Jewish shops, Jewish export firms, [[Shechita]], membership in business associations, and more. While 25% of students were Jews in 1921-22, the proportion had dropped to 8% by 1938-9. The far-right [[National Democracy (Poland)|National Democracy]] (EndeksEndecja) party organized anti-Jewish boycotts. Following the death of Poland's ruler [[Józef Piłsudski]] in 1935, the EndeksEndecja intensified its efforts and in 1937 declared that its "main aim and duty must be to remove the Jews from all spheres of social, economic, and cultural life in Poland", which lead to violence in a few cases (pogroms in smaller towns). In response, the government organized the [[Camp of National Unity]] (OZON), which took control of the Polish parliament in 1938. The Polish parliament then drafted anti-Jewish legislation similar to [[anti-Jewish laws]] which existed in Germany, Hungary, and Romania. OZON advocated the mass emigration of Jews from Poland, boycotts of Jews, [[Numerus clausus#Poland|numerus clausus]] (see also [[Ghetto benches]]), and other limitations on Jewish rights.<ref name="Hagen">{{cite journal|last=Hagen|first=William W.|title=Before the 'final solution': Toward a comparative analysis of political anti-Semitism in interwar Germany and Poland|journal=The Journal of Modern History|volume=68|issue=2|year=1996|pages=351–381|doi=10.1086/600769|s2cid=153790671}}</ref> According to [[Timothy Snyder]], in the years leading up to [[World War II]] the Polish leadership "wanted to be rid of most Polish Jews... [but] in simple logistical terms the idea... seemed to make no sense. How could Poland arrange a deportation of millions of Jews while the country was mobilized for war? Should the tens of thousands of Jewish officers and soldiers be pulled from the ranks of the Polish army?"<ref name="Snyder 2015">{{Cite book| edition = First| publisher = Tim Duggan Books| isbn = 978-1-101-90345-2| last = Snyder| first = Timothy| title = Black earth: the Holocaust as history and warning| chapter = The Promise of Palestine| location = New York| date = 2015}}</ref>

[[History of the Jews in Poland|The Jewish community in Poland]] made up about 10% of the country's total population in 1939 but it was all but eradicated [[The Holocaust in Poland|during the Holocaust]].<ref name="Lukas">{{cite book |last1=Lukas |first1=Richard, PhD. |author-link1=Richard C. Lukas |url=https://archive.org/details/outofinferno00rela |url-access=registration |quote=The estimates of Jewish survivors in Poland,. |title=Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |year=1989 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/outofinferno00rela/page/5 5], 13, 111, 201|isbn=0813116929 }}; ''also in'' {{cite book |orig-year=1986 |year=2012 |last1=Lukas |publisher=[[University of Kentucky Press]]/Hippocrene Books |isbn=978-0-7818-0901-6 |title=The Forgotten Holocaust: Poles Under Nazi Occupation 1939-1944 |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lv1mAAAAMAAJ&q=editions:lC7HhINUjXIC}}</ref> In the [[Polish census of 2011]], only 7,353 people declared either their primary or secondary ethnicity as Jewish.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

=== Roma ===

=== Ukrainians ===

=== Sub-Saharan Africans ===

Perceptions of black people have also been shaped by literature. [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]]’s novel ''[[In Desert and Wilderness]]'' contains the famous character [[Kali (character)|Kali]], who speaks broken English and has dubious morality. In 1924, poet [[Julian Tuwim]] published a children's verse, "[[Murzynek Bambo]]" ("The little Murzyn Bambo"), which remained much-loved over the following half-century, but in the 21st century became criticised for "[[othering]]" black people. In Communist Poland, ''[[Uncle Tom’sTom's Cabin]]'', by [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] was translated quite freely and targeted at children because it was seen as anti-capitalist and anti-slavery, but now is seen as reinforcing various black stereotypes.<ref name=dcmm>{{Cite webmagazine|url=https://time.com/5874185/poland-racism-women-murzyn/|title=#DontCallMeMurzyn: Black Women in Poland Are Powering the Campaign Against a Racial Slur|date=August 7, 2020|websitemagazine=Time}}</ref>

==EthnicRacism against ethnic Poles==

ThroughThough Poles have generally constituted a majority of Poland's population, there were times, particularly during the [[partitions of Poland]] (mid-18th century to 1918), when most Polish territories were under control of other nations, and Poles, effectively minorities in the nationalistic [[German Empire]] and [[Russian Empire]], were [[Anti-Polish sentiment#Before the Second Polish Republic, 1918|subject to discrimination and racism]].<ref name="Smith2011">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPngdGug27kC&pg=PA359|title=The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History|first=Helmut Walser |last=Smith|date=29 September 2011|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-923739-5|pages=359–}}</ref><ref name="Herpen2015">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q1IWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA36|title=Putin's Wars: The Rise of Russia's New Imperialism|first=Marcel H. |last=Van Herpen|date=1 July 2015|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-5359-9|pages=36–42}}</ref>

In 2013 Polish Prime Minister [[Donald Tusk]] started The Council Against Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia, but it was shut down by the new [[Law and Justice (Poland)|Law and Justice]] government in May 2016.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Narkowicz |first1=Kasia |title=Re-emerging Racisms: Understanding Hate in Poland |url=https://discoversociety.org/2016/06/01/re-emerging-racisms-understanding-hate-in-poland/ |website=Discover Society |access-date=29 August 2019|date=June 2016 }}</ref>