1930 poster showing a Black American being lynched, hanging from the Statue of Liberty
"And you are lynching Negroes" ([А у вас негров линчуют] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help), translit. A u vas negrov linchuyut; "but at your place Negroes are being lynched") is an anecdotal counter-argument phrase, which fully represents the tu quoque arguments used by the Soviet Union in response to allegations that it had violated human rights.[1] The phrase refers to racial discrimination and lynching in the United States.[2]
Origin[]
The use of the phrase as a reference to demagoguery and hypocrisy is traced to a Russian political joke, about a dispute between an American and a Soviet man.[3] There were numerous versions of the quip. In a 1962 version, an American and a Soviet car salesman argue which country makes better cars. Finally, the American asks: "How many decades does it take an average Soviet man to earn enough money to buy a Soviet car?" After a thoughtful pause, the Soviet replies: "And you are lynching Negroes!"[4]
The Soviet media frequently covered stories of racial discrimination in the west, as well as reporting on the impacts of unemployment and financial crises, which were seen as inherent problems of the capitalist system. The US' long history of lynching parties and racial tension was seen as a skeleton in the closet for the country, which was exploited by the Soviet Union to point out hypocrisy when being reproached with alleged human rights violations, primarily during the Stalinist period, but also afterwards.[citation needed]
Variants[]
Similar phrases are used in the languages of Eastern Europe, in different variants.
- Polish language: A u was Murzynów biją!
[5] (Literally, "And at your place, they beat up Negroes!")
- Czech language: A vy zase bijete černochy!
[6] (Literally, "And you beat up blacks, on the contrary!")
- Hungarian language: Amerikában (pedig) verik a négereket (Literally, "And in America, they beat up negroes")[7]
See also[]
- Human Rights Record of the United States, a document issued by the Communist government of China, referencing in the introduction US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on China and "prepared to urge the United States to face up to its own human rights issues"[8]
- The pot calling the kettle black
- Tu quoque
- Whataboutism
References[]
- ↑ Lucas, Edward (2009). The New Cold War: How the Kremlin Menaces Both Russia and the West. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 307. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=2S1_uDqjmbEC&pg=PA307&dq=%22And+you+are+lynching+Negroes%22+soviet+propaganda&hl=en&sa=X&ei=wZMaT6DwB4uQiQertrGDDA&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22And%20you%20are%20lynching%20Negroes%22%20soviet%20propaganda&f=false.
- ↑ Interview with a Soviet emigrant Bloom Southwest Jewish Archives University of Arizona
- ↑ (Russian) "Your Letters", at Radio Liberty
- ↑ Dora Shturman, Sergei Tiktin (1985) "Sovetskii Soiuz v zerkale politicheskogo anekdota" ("Soviet Union in the Mirror of the Political Joke"), Overseas Publications Interchange Ltd., London, ISBN 0-903868-62-8, p. 58 (Russian)
- ↑ "Gdzie Murzynów biją albo racjonalizm na cenzurowanym" (Polish)
- ↑ "Nepoučitelný Topolánek" (Czech)
- ↑ "A pragmatikus szocializmus évtizedei"(Hungarian)
- ↑ Introduction // Full Text of Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010 Information Office of the State Council
The original article can be found at And you are lynching Negroes and the edit history here.