You Look Like You’re Polish: Is That a Compliment?

The First Time Anyone Ever Said I Was Lucky to Be Polish: Who Thinks I Look Like John Paul?

How do you react when someone says you“look Polish?” As I age, more people say, “you look like Pope John Paul II.” Photo collage by Joseph Serwach, including an image of St. John Paul II via Levan Ramishvili via Wikimedia Commons.

Do we become what we study? When someone tells me I look like St. John Paul the Great, it makes me beam.

A young Catholic lady told me a brand new one: “You’re so lucky to be Polish. Poles are so sure of their faith.” No one ever said that to me.

I’ve seldom (if ever) heard someone compliment me and note my “Polishness” in the same sentence.” For 123 years (1795–1918), Poland was captured and erased. Then, from 1939–89, enemies crushed and persecuted our people. We were called “dumb Polacks.”

Compliments were few.

Put-downs and challenges inspire you to ‘go the other way’

Fifty years ago, “All in the Family” (television’s No.1 ranked showed for five straight years) debuted (I was a little kid) featuring a Polish son-in-law frequently put down as a Meathead (dead from the neck up) and a “dumb Polack.”

Polish jokes were widespread in the 1970s. Detroit had weekly “ethnic festivals,” celebrating every race and ethnic heritage (each group taught to be proud of where you came from). But we also heard a lot of ethnic humor.