Soviet propaganda poster declaring lack of freedoms in America (1950, by Nikolay Dolgorukov and Boris Efimov). Freedom of the press is depicted as William Randolph Hearst spreading lies; Freedom of thought is depicted as judge giving a verdict for communist beliefs; Personal freedom is depicted as the lynching of an African American by members of the Ku Klux Klan; Freedom of assembly is depicted as Riot control.

"And you are lynching Negroes" (Russian: А у вас негров линчуют; literally but at your place negroes are lynched) is a Tu quoque (literally, you too) a rhetorical device used in the Soviet Union and several other countries of the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. Lynching was among typical criticisms of the United States in Soviet propaganda.^[1][2]

The use of the phrase as a reference to demagoguery and hypocrisy is traced to an anekdot, a Russian political joke from the times of Nikita Khrushchev, about a dispute between an American and a Russian.^[3] There were numerous versions of the quip. In a 1962 version, an American and a Soviet car salesmen argue which country makes better cars. Finally, the American asks: "How many decades does an average Soviet man need to work to save for your car?" After a thoughtful pause, the Soviet replies: "And you are lynching Negroes!"^[4]

[edit] Variants

Similar phrases are used in various languages of Eastern Europe, in different variants.

• Serbian: А што ви бијете црнце?^{[citation needed]}
• Croatian: A što vi radite crncima? (Literally, "And what do you do to Negroes?")^{[citation needed]}
• Polish: A u was Murzynów biją!^[5] (Literally, "And at your place, they beat up Negroes!")
• Czech: A vy zase bijete černochy^[6]
• Slovak: A vy zasa bijete černochov^{[citation needed]}
• Hungarian: Amerikában (pedig) verik a négereket (Literally, "And in America, they are beating up negroes")^[7]
• Bulgarian: А вие защо биете негрите? (Literally, "And why do you beat the Negroes?")^[8]
• Bosnian: I vi ubijate crnce.^{[citation needed]}
• Slovene: Vi pa ubijate črnce.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Jim Crow laws
• African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968), (1896–1954)

[edit] References