The Eastern European country does have a certain racial reputation, but Poland's first black Member of Parliament (Poland has two elected black conservatives in its national legislature) says don't believe the stereotype. From The Guardian (Nigeria): "Debunking allegations of level of racism in Poland, Godson said: 'Poland is one of the most tolerant countries I have been to and I have
never felt more at home in any place as I feel in Poland. In my
constituency, during the council election, out of about 800 candidates, I
got the second best result. During the past parliamentary elections, I
ran from the 5th place and I got the second best result in our party
with about 30,000 votes having even higher number than the person who
was number one on the list, who was a former minister."
More about the Nigerian-born politician's comments: "'I will
want to differentiate between racism and what I call low intercultural
competence. Post war Poland has been homogeneous, the people are not
used to foreigners and so people base their judgment on stereotypes. But
Poland has opened up as it has joined the European Union (EU) and
people have more opportunity to travel and more foreigners have more
opportunities to travel to Poland. Unfortunately abroad, there is that negative stereotyping of Poland as a racist country and that it is not true.'"
John Abraham Godson: "Poland Ain't A Racist Country"
