Wordplay does not equal racism

By: Dwight Wozich

Posted: 6/4/08

I am a Polack. "Polack" is a racial epithet used to degrade someone of Polish descent. It was utilized widely by bigots in the early 20th century to discriminate against waves of Polish immigrants that were flocking to the United States. They weren't happy that the Poles were willing to take on the harsh factory jobs that "socially conscious" Americans refused to do. They scorned them for worshipping in the Roman Catholic Church. The term "Polack" symbolizes American ignorance and hatred towards a people that wanted nothing more than food and security for their families.
I will provide you with some personal background so you'll understand why I hate this word so much.
My grandfather, Stanley Wozich, immigrated to the United States after World War II. During the war he experienced hardship that would have killed weaker men. When the German army invaded Poland in 1939, they began rounding up Polish males and sending them to work camps. Many never returned.
My grandfather joined the German army to escape the work camps. His mother was German, so he was able to claim citizenship and enlisted to fight. His unit was sent to the Russian front, where he was wounded in battle and the doctors declared him medically unfit for combat. The army sent him to Germany, where he stayed until the end of the war.
He met my grandmother, Benita, while he was working as an ambulance driver for an orphanage. The American couple who ran the orphanage liked my grandparents, and they sponsored them for a visa to the United States. They settled in Oakland, Calif., in 1950.
America in the 1950s was not a comfortable social climate for an ex-German soldier. Many of the men in my grandfather's community were U.S. Army veterans who lost close friends and relatives to German bullets. My grandfather couldn't sit on the front porch with them and swap war stories.
When my dad was growing up, he never told his playmates about my grandfather fighting for the German army. He was afraid that if their parents found out, they wouldn't let him come over anymore.
Rather than sulk about his plight, my grandfather set an example for his children. He put food on the table by working long hours at an airplane factory. He was very active in his church, he was a talented singer, and he sang in the church choir. Eventually, he saved enough money to be able to buy his family a nice home in the Oakland hills. My dad and his two siblings were educated in private schools, and they all went on to attend college.
Despite my grandfather's attempts to Americanize his kids, it was hard to avoid the stigma of a last name like Wozich.
My father only quit one job his entire life. He left after the man he was working for called him a "dumb Polack." My dad has a forest engineering degree from Oregon State - he is far from stupid, yet this cretin could not see his value as a person. His perception of my father was derived from a negative stereotype of ethnic heritage.
This experience shaped my father greatly. He raised me to look past skin color, ethnicity and religion. I have never been called a Polack, but it hurts me just as much to think about the abuse my forefathers suffered. I have gained immense respect for my ethnic heritage and the trials that Polish people have gone through to obtain acceptance in this country.
Perhaps this is why I was infuriated when I read the sanctimonious, attention-seeking letter that was printed in the Forum section of the Barometer on May 21.
Steven Leider, the author of the letter, chastised the editors of the Barometer for allowing the use of the phrase "The jig is up" in a staff editorial headline. He claimed the phrase was coined in the South under Jim Crow law. In Leider's words, "It refers to that part of the lynching where the victim was hung by the neck. The whiter perpetrators used the phrase when calling to other whites, telling them that the victim had been strung up."
First, I would like to point out that Leider has misinterpreted the word "jig" in this context.
"The jig is up," has origins extending back hundreds of years before Jim Crow. Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines jig in this context as "a trick or game." Webster's dates the word to 1560. The American Heritage Dictionary defines jig as "a joke or trick." The phrase has existed since the Renaissance and has absolutely no connection to hate crimes.
I decided to double-check my research. I Googled the phrase "the jig is up" in relation to lynching. Out of 346 results, the only one that showed any sort of connection to racial violence was a link to Leider's letter at the Barometer website.
I went to the Valley Library website and did a search with EBSCO, an online database that accesses hundreds of scholarly journals. Not a single negative result came up, but the phrase was used in the correct manner in several hundred articles.
One can only surmise that Leider was attempting to refer to "jig" as an abbreviated version of "jigaboo," a racial slur that is extremely offensive to the African-American community. I'm not sure what Leider's goal was in connecting the word "jig" in a racial context to the staff editorial.
As many of you are aware, the Barometer was rocked with scandal earlier this year in relation to the "Black-Out" incident. The true test of racial discrimination is whether the negative practice in question is repeated. As far as I see it, the Barometer hasn't printed any more articles that have caused such controversy. Understandably, the editors are gunshy when it comes to issues of race. Despite their implication in the previous issue, I feel they were not in the wrong by allowing the phrase "the jig is up" to be printed in their paper.
I personally feel Leider's letter amounts to nothing more than intellectual bullying. It is contrary to progress to spend our time being paranoid about using abbreviated versions of racial slurs in our language. There are too many of them to count - think about it. Should Burger King stop selling the "Whopper?" Should people who describe Jell-O as "jiggly" be scolded?
I might as well be furious every time someone watches the movie "Poltergeist."
I find comments like Leider's demeaning to the experiences of people like my grandfather, who quietly achieved success in America despite society's attempts to keep him down. When my dad was called a "Polack," he didn't seek out the nearest innocent person and hamstring them with accusations of racial prejudice. He confronted the man who belittled him and taught his children that it was unacceptable to hate others based on something as shallow as skin color or the country they come from.
My family is not alone in its plight. There are thousands of people - red, white, black, yellow or brown - that have similar experiences with intolerance.
Equality begins by creating friendships, not by persecuting people for their flaws.

Dwight Wozich is a junior in history. The opinions expressed in his columns do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Barometer staff. Wozich can be reached at forum@dailybarometer.com.