slurs on the Polish

[Victor]

Is there a gradation of insults between ordering pollack (which is often
spelled "pollock") in supermarkets ("Could you give me a piece of that
Pollack, please?"), or using chemical products to "Polish" your car or
furniture?--ok, so phonetically both of these might not work, so sue me!

On a more serious note, I am sure everyone remembers the flareup over
"Bosniaks" that was assumed to be a slur along the lines of "Polak". (In
fact, I got a local reporter in trouble for making this incorrect
claim.) "Polak"--and I am using that spelling intentionally--is an
undoubtedly original Yiddish insult, although "Litvak" is rarely an
insult these days. There was a time when certain East European religious
clans would insult each other by referring to the geographical point of
origin of the other's sect. I am still not convinced that the insult was
ever intended to imply anything other than point of origin of the
insultee rather than his ethnicity (that is, it would be reserved for
other Jews, not for Slavs). I am also not convinced that Poles who don't
speak English (or Yiddish) fairly fluently would be insulted by such
use--the insult would be in the intent of the speaker, not the
understanding of the recipient. And "pol'ak" is a perfectly reasonable
description of a Polish native in Russian that would never be mistaken
for an insult. In fact, some young (20s) Poles with whom I spoke on the
subject as recently as four months ago were dumbfounded that this was
supposed to be an insult. (These Poles spoke English, but have never
been to the US--in fact, last time I used the word "Pole" in
correspondence with one of them, the recipient asked me what that meant.)

    VS-)

Charles Doyle wrote:
> I always wonder, when I write "Polish!" on a student essay, whether I will be thought ethnically insensitive . . . .
>
>
>

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