I know that, generally speaking, when I travel, I put up with a lot of shit for being an American. I´ve never pretended to be otherwise, and my adamant hope has been that people´s opinions will eventually change, should they know me long enough to consider me to be more than just loud and stupid (two characteristics I don´t deny, but that I hope will be smothered by other, more positive traits).
The people that have had the complete lack of social awareness to say these things to my face in pretense of just expressing what they claim to know is true of the rest of Americans, (as if I was somehow excluded from this extremely generalized verdict) almost seem as if they´d never heard their manners questioned as a result. What makes ridiculing someone´s country any more acceptable than ridiculing their family or friends- and moreover, why do people ever feel that they need to tolerate it? It´s every bit as narrow as racism or homophobia- and the people who are too weak or lazy to see America for how complicated it really is should be made to feel as small and ignorant as they are unwittingly showing themselves to be.
Anyway, I have never felt that I should stand for it, and I certainly won´t hesitate to make my opinion known should I ever be made to feel that way. What I had never considered was that there could be another whole country that may not be as hated, but maybe just as misunderstood as ours. For the first time, I´m traveling at length with an Israeli girl with whom I have a lot in common- but what´s most surprising to me is that it seems that we are both confronted with a lot of crappy (but different) stereotypes. For once, I feel that maybe Americans aren´t the most unjustly depicted of all the traveling nationalities, and that maybe it´s Israel that´s getting the shortest end of the proverbial stick.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I totally feel ya'. When I lived in France, I always got the dirtiest looks when I told people I was American. This was during the W. Bush-era, so it was one of the worst times for an American to be in France. But yeah, I used to get so upset when people used to generalize about what kind of people Americans were. I mean, I didn't agree with a lot of the politics that was going on at the time, but Americans are just awesome, caring people. Bleh, I can go on for hrs. about this. hehe Anyway, I'm so glad you're out there representing us Americans, so don't stop being the loud, crazy girl. That's probably closer to the truth about Americans than what other people are thinking. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhen I traveled with a bunch of US'ers and Canadians, the Canadians always had a Canadian flag on their bags. I finally understood why when an American friend borrowed a Canadian friend's bag to travel for a day and came back wondering why everyone was so nice to her all of a sudden. She found out (after asking) that they thought she was Canadian and automatically treated her better. That's lame.
ReplyDeleteBut, I've always been one to deflect that shit by embracing it. Loud, obnoxious, opinionated? Sure, why not. Let's drink while we're at it and have an excuse!