#StopCallingMeMurzyn: Empathy and Political Correctness Among Polish Internet Users

This paper provides insights into the semantic relations between the concepts EMPATIA (“empathy”) and POPRAWNOŚĆ POLITYCZNA (“political correctness”) in present-day Polish. The author analyzed internet comments pertaining to the expert opinion formulated in August 2020 by a member of the Council for the Polish Language concerning the usage of the word Murzyn (“black (person), Negro”) as a potentially offensive term. The opinion was then extensively cited (albeit often misquoted and twisted) by the mass media, which triggered a substantial debate about the connotations of the word Murzyn, and the degree to which the word may be seen as derogatory. The dataset for the analysis was compiled using the Monco search engine and news monitoring service. While some internet users expressed their willingness to give up the term Murzyn, on account of their empathy and solidarity with black people, others felt that the word should not be construed as an insult, and that they were being censored in their speech and pressured by political correctness. The semantic relations between the two concepts studied depend largely on the diverse ideological alignments of the various speakers. It can also be postulated that the way in which the cited opinion was conceptually framed influenced the tone of the internet comments on the issue and triggered a considerable number of defensive responses.