Last night, I was fortunate enough to go to the international Poland vs. US soccer game at Soldier Field. My dad had scored an invite to the skybox of one of his Polish friends from work.
To this little crowd's extreme dislike, the first goal of the game was scored against Poland by Jozy Altidore, who also happens to be the only African American on the US National team. Everyone in the room muttered in discontent, and while I didn't understand everything they said, I remember frequently hearing the word 'dziki'. It wasn't until Altidore received a yellow card later in the match for slide tackling a Polish player that I heard the word again. When I leaned over and asked my dad what it meant, he told me that dziki meant wild and savage, and it was commonly used in Poland as slang for a black person. He must've noticed my shocked expression, because he then rushed to say that this didn't always carry a negative connotation. Sometimes, he said, people would use this word to mean that a black person has unnatural and fierce talent, uncommon to what anyone was used to seeing.
But I stood unconvinced. Was it really possible that the words wild and savage could carry different meanings in different countries? Looking it up later, I found that dziki does in fact mean wild, rugged, savage, and uncivilized. However, I also found that it can mean 'natural'. So is it really possible that it was used to refer to Altidore's undeniable and uncommon talent, or did it imply that his ferocious 'instincts' gave him an unfair advantage over the other players? And could this be taken as a compliment? Or were they just being terribly racist and implying that he wasn't able to play by the rules?
I agree with you in the sense that I believe the word appears to carry negative connotations rather than a more neutral meaning. As no expert towards the Polish language, I may not be able to rightfully comment on how the language is used. But when one says something towards a African-American that implies "savage" or "wild", it has to be racist or, at the least, extremely demeaning. Whether you want to hear it or not, there is a stereotype in certain parts of the world where it is assumed that African-Americans tend to be uncivilized. While this is not true, I believe that this racist remark carries that meaning; this belief that African-Americans come from Africa, where it is known to be very wild. And since the origin of the word, I at least think that the authors of this phrase did mean to characterize blacks as fierce and uncivilized.
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