And you are lynching Negroes

"And you are lynching Negroes" ( _ru. А у вас негров линчуют; literally "but at your [place they are] lynching negroes") is a phrase known in several Eastern European and Southeast European countries (see below) referring to the use of the rhetorical device known as "Tu quoque" ("You, too") in political contexts. The image of mobs in the United States lynching African American citizens was a part of the scary image of the United States propagated in the Soviet Union. [ [http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/bloom/oralhistories/mila2.html Interview with a Soviet emigrant] ] ["СССР в мировом сообществе: от старого мышления к новому", Progress Publishers, 1990 [http://books.google.com/books?id=4Tk3AAAAMAAJ&q=%22%D1%83+%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%81+%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2+%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%87%D1%83%D1%8E%D1%82%22&dq=%22%D1%83+%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%81+%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2+%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%87%D1%83%D1%8E%D1%82%22&pgis=1 p. 487] ru icon]

The ironic usage of the phrase is traced to a Russian joke from the times of Nikita Khrushchev, about a dispute between an American and a Russian. [ru icon [http://www.svoboda.org/programs/RYTT/2001/RYTT.080301.asp "Your Letters"] , at "Radio Liberty"] There were several versions of them. A version dated by 1962 goes as follows: [Dora Shturman, Sergei Tiktin (1985) "Sovetskii Soiuz v zerkale politicheskogo anekdota" ("Soviet Union in the Mirror of the Politicial Joke"), Overseas Publications Interchange Ltd., London, ISBN 0903868628, [http://books.google.com/books?id=i9dKAAAAMAAJ&q=%22%D1%83+%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%81+%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2+%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%87%D1%83%D1%8E%D1%82%22&dq=%22%D1%83+%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%81+%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2+%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%87%D1%83%D1%8E%D1%82%22&pgis=1 p. 58] ru icon] "The "Voice of America" asks the "Soviet radio": 'Is it true that your shops are empty?' In three days the reply is given: "And you are lynching negroes."

A similar ironic catch phrase is from a 1964 song by Soviet bard Yuri Vizbor: [ru icon [http://www.opera-ballet.com.ua/articles/ballet/288/ "And in the area of ballet, we are ahead of the whole planet!"] ] "And in the area of ballet, we are ahead of the whole planet!" ("А также в области балета мы впереди планеты всей".) [ru icon [http://www.vizbor.ru/index.php?chrazdel=2&chmenu=3&r=songs&is=3&idsong=294 "A Tale of Technologist Petukhov"] , song by Yuri Vizbor] The topic of the song is a dispute between a Soviet engineer and an "African prince".

Variants

Similar phrases are used in various languages of Eastern Europe, in different variants, often in reference to different jokes, albeit with the same idea.
* _sr. А што ви бијете црнце?
* _hr. A što vi radite crncima? (Literally, "And what do you do to Negroes?")
* _pl. A u was biją Murzynów! [ [http://www.racjonalista.pl/kk.php/s,5397 "Gdzie Murzynów biją albo racjonalizm na cenzurowanym"] pl icon] (Literally, "And at your place, they beat up Negroes!")
* _cs. A vy zase bijete černochy [ [http://www.lidovky.cz/nepoucitelny-topolanek-0sy-/ln_nazory.asp?c=A080314_074502_ln_nazory_nev "Nepoučitelný Topolánek"] cs icon]
* _sk. A vy zasa bijete černochov
* _hu. Amerikában (pedig) verik a négereket (Literally, "And in America, they are beating up negroes") [ [http://www.elib.hu/02100/02185/html/45.html "A pragmatikus szocializmus évtizedei"] hu icon]
* _bg. А вие защо биете негрите? (Literally, "And why do you beat the Negroes?") [http://www1.parliament.bg/kns/Pkontrol/37-LN-p/37-LN-p133.htm A record of a session of Bulgarian parliament] bg icon]
* _bs. I vi ubijate crnce.

See also

* Pot calling the kettle black
* Two wrongs make a right
* Soviet propaganda

References