Rising Hatred?
2017 is off to a bad start.
On New Year’s Eve, an altercation at a kebab stand in the town of Ełk left one man dead, and the survivor of the fight was the owner of the shop, an immigrant from Tunisia. An outraged crowd gathered afterwards, shouting anti-Muslim slogans and throwing things at the shop. When police tried to intervene they were attacked, and 29 people were eventually arrested. The local bishop appealed for calm at mass the next day, leading a group of young men to storm out of the church in anger, saying that this was a time for “justice” and not “mercy.” One young man standing outside the kebab stand told a reporter “his death will not be in vain; this is a signal to put things in order (robić porządek).” Over the next few days, kebab stands in several other cities were attacked. Several shop owners had to be taken to hospitals for their injuries, and at least one shop was damaged enough to force its closure. Among the victims was a Hindu who had immigrated to Poland from India. As he was being beaten the assailants were shouting anti-Islamic slogans. It would seem that a dark complexion is enough nowadays for the thugs to label you as “Muslim.”
Also on New Year’s Eve (actually, early in the morning on January 1), some Varsovians were at the Café Foksal, just off the fashionable Nowy Świat street in the center of Warsaw. Their conversation turned to the subject of Israel, where some of them had relatives. Accounts of what happened next vary, but apparently they offended the bartender, who told them that she was Catholic and shouldn’t have to listen to their conversation, so they should leave. An argument ensued, and the police were called. While we can’t be sure what sparked the confrontation, the resulting argument and particularly the internet explosion that came later exposed a great deal of undeniable antisemitism.
In response to all this, the current Minister of the Interior, Mariusz Błaszczak, gave us a textbook example of blaming the victim. He said the violence in Poland was not as widespread as it was in Germany or France (true enough), and he explained this by pointing to the willingness of those countries to accept immigrants from the Near East and Africa. The real culprit here, he said was “many years of multi-culti policies, political correctness, and open borders.” He was proud that Poland had avoided this, thanks to his party’s leadership. Had the opposition won the last elections, he noted, they would have allowed a few thousand refugees into Poland (a country of nearly 40 million), and then the violence would surely be a lot worse. In other words, for Błaszczak, the mere presence of dark-skinned people in Poland would ensure that the locals would commit acts of violence against them, so the best policy is to keep the foreigners out. I thought that the rhetorical brutality and sheer stupidity of the current Polish government could no longer surprise or outrage me, but the fact that the Interior Minister could say something like that precisely at a moment of rising tensions….I’m speechless.
What should we think about events like these? It is very easy to fit them into a picture of rising hatred, spurred on by the current wave of radical-right victories in Europe and America. On both sides of the Atlantic, we have abundant reports of hate crimes in which the perpetrators echoed the rhetoric of Trump, Kaczyński, Le Pen, Hofer, Orbán, etc. It is beyond any doubt that these despicable individuals and the movements they represent have inspired people to say publicly what previously had been relegated to marginal websites and private conversations. 2016 was the year in which the rock of the modern world was turned over, and the maggots underneath crawled out.
But I want to offer a note of caution as we encounter more and more stories of hate crimes, not to mention public displays of prejudice. Among the countless idiocies of the bigots, one of the most annoying is their tendency to extrapolate wildly from anecdotes. A Muslim committed an act of terrorism? Then all Muslims are dangerous. A Mexican committed a crime? Then we need to expel “them” from “our” country. Studies have shown that supporters of the new hatemongering politicians vastly overstate the crime rate and understate the assimilation rate of immigrants, but even the most prejudiced acknowledge that not all the members of group X are bad. Instead, they see the world in terms of cohesive and coherent national groups in which each member of the group is responsible for the transgressions of any of them. The bigots rarely apply that same logic to their own group, but that’s another matter.
The logical fallacies in that worldview are too numerous to count, particularly given the increasing irrelevance of facts, let along reason. But well-intentioned people can and should be introspective enough to avoid making parallel mistakes. We need to ask ourselves whether episodes of hate crimes or hate speech exemplify changing attitudes and/or increased aggression, or whether we are noticing these episodes and giving them greater weight because they fit into the big story of our sad era, the rise of the xenophobic right. The eternal pitfalls of confirmation bias loom large nowadays.
Hate crimes are increasing in Poland. From January to August of 2016 there were 493 reported incidents, compared to 452 during those same months the year before. The jump between 2014 and 2015 was even more dramatic: from 698 reported hate crimes to 962. The number of cases actually prosecuted grew even faster, though the categorization used by the Justice Ministry includes transgressions that would be protected under the First Amendment in the US (for example, displaying “totalitarian” imagery or slogans). These numbers are significant, and an outrage, but let’s not jump to the conclusion that Poland is suddenly a totally different place than it was in 2014. In fact, the most important lesson I’ve learned while living in Warsaw this year is that it is still the same city I’ve known and loved for over thirty years. The thugs in power now in Poland make it seem that things have profoundly changed, but in reality the transformations are at the margins (so far). One reason the number of hate crimes has increased so much is because that figure was so tiny to begin with, and given the size of Poland, the incidents remain rare. If PiS holds power for a few decades and succeeds in their desire to homogenize the media and the education system under their control, perhaps things truly will get worse, but that hasn’t happened yet. The situation feels worse, and I catch myself avoiding English in public, noticing ugly and vulgar graffiti that I would have once ignored, and jumping to conclusions when I see young men wearing t-shirts with WWII slogans. Like everyone else, my perceptions are filtered through the stories I’m hearing (and repeating) from the realm of high politics and public life. I’m struggling to resist making too many assumptions, but it’s hard.
I’m not arguing for complacency, and I certainly don’t suggest that we ignore episodes of hate speech (much less actual violence). But during these troubling times, we scholars in particular (but really, everyone) must be vigilant against overstatement and overgeneralization. That’s precisely what the Błaszczyks of the world are doing. And he definitely isn’t an example worth copying.