Verbally attacked by a group of black girls at university after telling them about my family history. Why?

Question

My family moved from Poland to the US when I was 8. We were still under communist rule when we left. My great-grand parents were killed in front on my grandmother during WWII. My grandmother was forced to do slave labor for 7 years. My parents suffered because of the poor economy and communism. We moved to the US with $350. Dad worked on a mushroom farm for low wages. Dad and mom learned English and forbid me from speaking Polish. We truly struggled and endured hardship while in Poland and our first few years in the US. When I told the girls my story they acted like they suffered far worse. They said whites should pay them reparations. Next they said that whites hold them down in society. I told them communism is slavery. Then they said (and I quote), "stupid little white girl actin like she know bout slavery, you ain't black, you don't suffer ****, everything was handed to you." This isn't true! Those girls are not slaves and never were. Why the attack on me when I lived through it?

Big thanks to all who left positive answers! I feel much better about this experience now. Normally when I tell anybody about my life and family history, they want to know more about life in Poland. If people feel pity for me and my situation, I tell them that I am here now and that is the past. I don't want pity, only understanding. These girls asked how I came to the US, and I told. One of them is supposed to be my friend, also. Maybe she'll realize that my story was not meant to belittle any others who have suffered from slavery, communist rule, etc. It's just MY story. My classmate (who is from Africa) and I always talk about how our former countries were unjust. He and I often joke about it and its fine because we can relate on some level. These girls should have just shared their own experiences that deal with oppression. They "are" in graduate school where many opinions are ethically debated, and even when no common ground can be found, respect and open communication are welcome

Answer 1

they want to use the past to have people feel sorry for them now..they just need an excuse ................

Answer 2

I'm a Black girl and I'm sorry for wht you went through. Those Black girls you were talking about sound like idiots (unless there is something you left out of the story). But yeah...some Black people are still using "The-White-man-is-holding-me-back" excuse and the "Blame the White people" for all their short comings. Just ignore them and know that not all Black people are as stupid as those girls.

Answer 3

People want to feel special. Many black folks truely are influenced by the legacy of enslavement. No credit for their work. No pay, no equity built up in property. They were the property.No schooling, no banking, no ownership of anything, being sold away from people they love. Similiar to your grandparents who suffered unimaginably by the Nazis and Stalin. These unfortunate black girls felt threatened by your background.
They could not whine anymore about how bad they had it because you, and especially yours and their grandparents suffered far more. There is a segment in our population and not just those of enslaved african descent, that believes that the world owes them a life, the government has all the solutions and nothing is their fault.
As Dr. Martin Luther King requested that we are judged by the content of our character. These young women need to work on their character.

Answer 4

Racial issues will be around as long as Mankind. If they would do research on the heritage of the black people they would find that it was the rich black people that sold their own kind to benefit themselves. It was the wealthy blacks that sold
their people for slavery not the white race. Yes the white people bought them and used them as slaves. But it also took a white Man Abraham Lincoln to free them from slavery. Learn more your History before casting stones.

Answer 5

The problem was that you claimed living under communist rule was *the same thing* as slavery, not that it was *like* slavery.
Your ancesters suffered, true, but they still had the option to leave and start a different life. You didn't mention what work your grandmother did, but it wasn't truly "slave labor" because she was probably paid for it, even if she was underpaid, and she probably had the option to leave that job for another one.
Slavery is a very sensitive issue, so you should be careful about how you label your family's struggles.

These girls weren't certainly unfair - having white skin doesn't mean everything comes easy and doesn't mean your family didn't have to work hard and suffer to get where they are. And you should have pointed out to those girls that neither they nor any living member of their families were slaves, and their families have had just as long to work their way up from nothing as yours did.

This sort of debate is known as "My holocaust is worse than yours." The Jews focus on the Holocaust of WWII, blacks talk about slavery in America, Russians talk about Communism, etc. Each group tries to insist that their suffering was the worst, but they all ignore the larger point - all holocausts are bad, and suffering should teach us compassion and empathy, not competition.

Go back to these girls and try to reason with them. Tell them that you didn't mean to imply your family's struggles were worse than their family's struggles, but you hope that seeing how other people have suffered would elicit their compassion for all people - not just the ones that look like them.

Answer 6

The sad legacy of humanity is that everyone at one point or other has oppressed, enslaved, or attacked someone else. The blacks were slaves to Europeans, the Jews were herded into camps by the Nazi's, the Egyptians used vast amounts of slave labour, look at what the Japanese did to the Chinese and Koreans in WW2.

Unfortunately, races being equal, means that we are all equally able to engage in degenerate behaviors as well as sublimation. The problem is that it has become politically correct to focus on the terrible things the blacks went through (and to an extent still face) and to negate the fact that they don't have a monopoly on being abused.

Answer 7

I understand what you are saying...BUT...

The Polish 'living in America' have not suffered in AMERICA like black people. Polish people who have immigrated here didn't have federal laws that forbade them from interracial relationships, living in nice neighborhoods, going to decent school...they didn't have to sit on the back of the bus.

The girls weren't upset because they didn't think a person from Poland hadnt had a hard life. IN POLAND, life was hard. You cannot deny that once a person left communist Poland and moved to the U.S., things got better. For years, things in America were hell for black people. For blacks in the U.S., they were oppressed in America more than any other ethnic group (along with American Indians). I dont mean to sound like this, but Ellis Island didn't have slave ships bringing slaves in. People came here on their own free will.

50 years ago, you could have walked anywhere in the Southern U.S. after dark. Blacks could not...not in the U.S. It's a sensitive topic.

Answer 8

Obviously, those girls were ignorant and have never been anywhere in their lives. American black people need to stop acting like they hold some sort of patent on suffering and persecution. People in other countries are being horribly persecuted and oppressed right now, which everyone would realize if they just turned on the news or read a newspaper or a book. NOBODY is entitled to anything in this world. Black people are missing the boat by continuing to hold on to the myth of being owed something for ancestral persecutions. The rest of the world is figuring out how to struggle forward while we're still stuck in one place.

Answer 9

I don't understand why so many black people have chips on their shoulders again whites because of something that happened between totally different people many years ago. I have people treat me rottenly for it as well. I don't care. There are just ignorant people out there. You LIVED it. they just learned about it in history class. I'm sorry for your hardships and your dad is a wonderful person

Answer 10

Wow, the nerve! It really is wrong for them to imply that you have to be of a certain race in order to truly experience the displeasure of slavery. PUH-LEESE. And whats worse is the fact that they claim to have insight on suffering yet they refuse to sympathize and relate with someone who has gone through a similar experience. GEEZ.

Answer 11

Ignorance knows no boundaries. There is no question that blacks were in slavery before the Emancipation proclaimation and that they did indeed suffer, but the girls in question are worried that you are 'claiming their victimhood'. Consider the source, the individual girls, not black girls as a whole. The girls in question reacted in ignorance. Thank God that you are no longer oppressed, and move on making good on the life you now live, don't let the negative comments by a few people restrict how you look at a group as a whole.