"The Price of Arrogance: A Financial Crisis changes the World"
This blog is about how the German media perceives US. I find it very liberating, to be honest. I've been reading the Spiegel in German class and we’ve felt pretty offended. Being in a position in which we feel the need to defend America is a pretty rare occurrence…and I think we’re not sure quite what to do with it.
Like many Americans who've been abroad I've felt, at one time or other, embarrassed to be an American. EVERYONE talks about America and Americans like...well, like they know what they're talking about. People watch Friends and see Bush in the news and think they have enough information to judge 300 million people.
"People", and I'm really just talking about young Europeans, act as though they're informed, but then ask me to answer for the entire United States…and only say what they expect to hear. I've met very few people (all of whom have been to the US) who understood why asking me to represent Americans is ridiculous. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the question, "what's the weather like in America?" GUYS, THE USA IS BIG. PEOPLE ARE NOT THE SAME.
Europeans accept that other Europeans are different, but not that Americans are. I can only assume it's because they don't meet many Americans. They use this to make another judgment. That Americans hate travel and people who are different than them. But when I tell people I never met an Italian or German before I made the effort to fly over to Europe...well...let's not talk about that, or America is expensive. Um, hi. Europe is expensive.
But the only thing more annoying than being asked to represent all American citizens is not being asked to represent even ONE. I'll admit, at first I liked it, but now I'm offended when people say that I'm a "European" or in one-way or another an EXCEPTION, somehow not really American. Even if there are parts of my personality that are not shared by the majority of US citizen, this does not mean I am in anyway exempt from being an American, nor do I want to be. I don't have to be embarrassed about being an American, because I'm proud of who I am as a person and that person is an American. My parents are American, I was born in America and I went through American public schools. Some of my best friends are Americans. My first boyfriend was American. My kindergarten teacher was American. My Grandparents are Americans. My dog is American. Do people understand that when people talk about ‘Americans’…they’re talking about all these people (and dogs)?
I didn't even MEET a European until I was 17. A boy once told me that I had "needed" to come to Europe. Like it cleansed me or opened my eyes. I'm not saying it didn't, but not in the fundamental ways that boy thought it did. If I learned anything in my time abroad it's because my upbringing in an American city by American parents allowed me to.
I just don't know what some people think. Do they think I'm an outcast when I'm home? That people throw rocks at me and tell me to go back to Europe? I know that I'm really great and all, but some people just need to accept that I'm 'normal'. I do not feel in anyway out of place in Minneapolis....
And yet...where's my picture here?
http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2005/03/sterns_gallery_.html
And it's true what's said in that blog. If we did that about Germany it would be outrageously offensive and considered in bad taste.
Does any of this sound defensive? It would make sense that it would, because I'm being defensive. People keep pushing and I hold it in and then this is the result. I'm sick of feeling like I shouldn't be proud to be an American, like everyone else gets to be proud of whatever they are. Other countries have bad leaders, but we're made to think that OUR government is all that there is to our national identity. That and our ever present consumerism and superficiality...and ignorance. But that's it.
We Americans are led to believe that we have no culture and that makes it very hard to be proud of it. It is, in fact, part of our culture to think that we have no culture. Globalization, or Americanization, is somewhat to blame.
And just a note on that. When I was in Berlin I went into a McDonalds ONLY when GERMANS wanted to go there...and guess who was inside feeding the beast that is McDonalds...GERMANS. Guess what McDonalds needs to succeed in Europe...EUROPEANS.
I'm scared that part of American culture has become being embarrassed to be an American. But of course as I write that I recognize that I'm only talking about Americans my age that have studied abroad.
And really all I wanted to tell myself was...get over it. It sucks, but boo-woo. I have and will continue to have identity problems, but really...who cares. I belong to the most powerful country in the world and my most often complaint is that too many people speak my language, making life TOO easy for me (I'll try not to get into that now). I have SO MANY privileges as an American...I think I can deal with a little mischaracterization.
