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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Polish-American NBA star Jeremy Sochan has joined a campaign to promote Poland as a tourist destination. While his appearance has garnered a positive reception in Poland, Sochan responded directly to one commentator who asked why a black person was advertising the mostly white country.
The Polish Tourism Organisation (POT) has enlisted four leading Polish sports stars for new material promoting the country. In an advert in English, Sochan features alongside cyclist Katarzyna Niewiadoma, winner of this year’s Tour de France Femmes.
A separate video in Polish features sprinter Natalia Kaczmarek, an Olympic gold medalist, and javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk, who won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Both adverts use the slogan “Poland. More than you expected”, which was adopted by POT in 2021. At the time, the agency said it was intended to “surprise tourists with the spectacular Polish attractions that may not come to mind when thinking about Poland”.
In the English video, Sochan advises people to visit the long, sandy Baltic coastline in northern Poland while Niewiadoma recommends the mountains in Poland’s south. Sochan also recommends “awesome concerts” in Poland and its “city energy”.
Sochan was born in the United States to a Polish mother and an American father, both college basketball players. His grandmother and great-grandfather on his mother’s side were both involved in sports in Poland.
As a child, Sochan moved to the UK – and still speaks with a British accent, as can be heard in the new advert. He then played college basketball at Baylor University in Texas before being selected by the San Antonio Spurs as the ninth overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft.
While Sochan has never lived in Poland, he speaks Polish and chose to represent Poland at international level. He was part of the Polish team that won the U16 European Championship Division B title, with Sochan being named the tournament’s most valuable player.
The response on social media to Sochan’s video has been overwhelmingly positive. However, some far-right accounts have criticised the choice of a black person to advertise Poland.
“What is this?” Tomasz Sommer, the editor of the Najwyższy Czas! weekly, asked his 66,000 followers on X. “It’s an ‘advertisement of Poland’ served up by the tourism ministry…[featuring] the mandatory set of a black man with a tarantula on his head and a blonde woman. Have they gone crazy?”.
The word Sommer used for “black man”, murzyn, is regarded as offensive by many people in Poland and can be translated roughly as “negro”.
Sochan himself then shared Sommer’s tweet, writing in Polish: “Yes, my friend. You never know, maybe we’re distant cousins.” He then added in English: “Guys go to Poland, it’s beautiful.”
While Sommer’s tweet has attracted a string of mostly negative comments from Poles on social media, Sochan’s response has been widely praised.
Tak, moj przyjacielu 😎 nigdy nie wiadomo, moze jestesmy dalekimi kuzynami… 😉 Guys go to Poland, it’s beautiful! https://t.co/NafriUnJP2
— Jeremy Sochan (@JeremySochan) November 14, 2024
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: PTO
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
