“Black is Polish”: young black Poles create platform to discuss race in Poland

Posted in Articles, Europe, Media Archive, Social Justice on 2022-02-26 17:09Z by Steven

“Black is Polish”: young black Poles create platform to discuss race in Poland

Notes From Poland
2021-06-23

Zula Rabikowska

A year ago, an image of a black Polish girl protesting at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Warsaw helped to rekindle a long-running debate about language, racial identity and stereotypes in Poland. “Stop calling me Murzyn”, read her placard, referring to a Polish term for a black person that many say has come to hold pejorative meaning.

The Council for the Polish Language agreed with them in a recent declaration, saying that the word “Murzyn” “should be avoided in the media, official administration and at schools,” as it is no longer neutral, but “burdened with negative connotations”.

The #dontcallmemurzyn campaign, set up to fight against racial discrimination in the aftermath of the controversy, received domestic and international attention. To continue and broaden the movement’s work, its creators have now set up an educational platform called “Black is Polish”.

They say they hope to make racism a topic people understand and care about, to fight against what they see as deeply entrenched racism and inequality, and to bring about a long-needed transformation of Polish society…

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Poland’s multicultural music landscape: from Afro-Polish folk to Polish jazz from Peru

Posted in Anthropology, Articles, Arts, Asian Diaspora, Europe, Media Archive on 2022-02-20 03:42Z by Steven

Poland’s multicultural music landscape: from Afro-Polish folk to Polish jazz from Peru

Notes From Poland
2022-02-17

Zula Rabikowska

Poland is often depicted as an ethnically homogeneous country, and in some senses it is. Contemporary Polish identity, however, is more complex and diverse than is often represented in the media, and the markers of Polishness are changing.

Historically, Poland was a multicultural country, with a third of its population composed of minorities. That rich legacy is still reflected in contemporary culture, from food to literature and art.

Though the death, destruction and displacement of World War Two ended that ethnic diversity, the postwar era was marked by migrations from fellow communist countries, in particular Vietnam. And in recent years, Poland has recorded one of Europe’s highest rates of immigration

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