Europe, but Not Quite | Hacker News Reader

Europe, but Not Quite

balkanist.net

6 pointsdsego8 comments

After 50 years of exposure to this kind of narrative people will realize that 'whiteness' is not what is cracked up to be.

I grew up in New England where what kind of white (Harvard WASP vs vs Polish or French Canadian or Jewish) or black (old family from Beacon Hill or a refugee from "down home" chased away by the Klu Klux Klan) mattered much more than if you were white or black.

Culture matters a lot more than skin color. I am white and have way more in common with university educates black people than I have with white rednecks.

oh boy, when do people realise using woke English slang does not help the cause nor they should be used: They are made in an American context.

But Poland is central Europe, not eastern.

These terms have several meanings and are fuzzy.

Most commonly people in Europe still divide the continent between Western and Eastern Europe and Eastern Europe roughly means former communist countries.

So most people in 'Western Europe' will include Poles among Eastern Europeans (which may be pejorative depending on context).

I think that sometimes those pushing for the term 'central Europe' do so because they don't like being lumped into the same 'category' as their neighbours further East...

Poland and Czechoslovakia were part of the Soviet Union and as such their successor states are still considered part of Eastern Europe by (many) people living in nations on the other side of the iron curtain.

This has more to do with culture than with actual geographic location.

Oddly enough the centuries of shared culture before that didn't have that impact.

> Poland and Czechoslovakia were part of the Soviet Union

you sure about that?

why do people comment on topics for which they lack even the most fundamental knowledge??

Probably meant soviet bloc or sphere of influence.

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