And I'm always coming back to meta...
Aug. 27th, 2010 02:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gelbes_gilatierBecause ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pingulotta pointed me to a great article about US-universalism and nationality as a privilege that a lot of Americans just refuse to see. A lot of people on my flist don't and you have no idea how grateful I am for that. But I just can't forget about how I ran into that roadblock a few months ago and had to discover that often enough all the big liberal talk about being so open to the world and being able to see behind "privileges" and "barriers" and blah is just one big blast of hot air when it's put to the test outside of the usual categories Americans put people in (race, gender, sexuality, religion).
So... let me please quote those things in the article I found most important (but I recommend you to read the whole article).
It started with this and please forgive me but yes, the emphasis is all from me because it's just so true:
I know that most of you know that but please, every time you encounter someone who doesn't (and I don't care if it's a conservative or a liberal or whatever because as I have learned, liberals can be blockheads, too), please, please, please tell them about this. Maybe they'll believe it coming from an American since it seems like they don't when it's coming from someone who's not an American citizen.
And I like this one a lot because it says so wonderfully poignant what I couldn't get across. Thanks so much for someone saying this thing about putting people in neat little categories and then calling it "being inclusive" and how offensive that actually can be (emphasize by author this time):
Make them read the New York Times (since I love their articles on Germany and German issues), make them watch BBC World, make them read books from non-American authors. And when they go on a backpacking trip to Europe, please tell them not to hang out with Americans (you're amazingly easy to spot, without even having to hear you talking...) only but actually get to know the people of the country they're visiting... and plan more than just three days per country (it feels a little insulting, you know, even despite that we know that you only get three to four weeks of leave a year... but wouldn't you be insulted as well if we came to your state and planned three whole days for all of it?).
So, to wrap this all up, the last quote (again, emphasize by author):
To conclude this: again, I know that the Americans on my flist are great people who understand me and who know what I'm talking about and who're honestly interested in my country and my culture (and God, do I wish you could come over here so I can drag you through my city and chew off your ears about its history and show you just about everything)... but a lot of Americans aren't and a lot of Americans do forget that their way of seeing and judging the world is not everyone else's. If you really want to do me a favor... give them some of your wisdom and your greatness ;)
And now... I will finish watching that ep of Army Wives and then finally go and see a hairdresser about the mess my hair is. Whee.
pingulotta pointed me to a great article about US-universalism and nationality as a privilege that a lot of Americans just refuse to see. A lot of people on my flist don't and you have no idea how grateful I am for that. But I just can't forget about how I ran into that roadblock a few months ago and had to discover that often enough all the big liberal talk about being so open to the world and being able to see behind "privileges" and "barriers" and blah is just one big blast of hot air when it's put to the test outside of the usual categories Americans put people in (race, gender, sexuality, religion).So... let me please quote those things in the article I found most important (but I recommend you to read the whole article).
It started with this and please forgive me but yes, the emphasis is all from me because it's just so true:
The United States is not the world. It’s not even the centre of the universe.
I know that most of you know that but please, every time you encounter someone who doesn't (and I don't care if it's a conservative or a liberal or whatever because as I have learned, liberals can be blockheads, too), please, please, please tell them about this. Maybe they'll believe it coming from an American since it seems like they don't when it's coming from someone who's not an American citizen.
And I like this one a lot because it says so wonderfully poignant what I couldn't get across. Thanks so much for someone saying this thing about putting people in neat little categories and then calling it "being inclusive" and how offensive that actually can be (emphasize by author this time):
Not all non-white people are black. Stop referring to us as such. In fact, neither do all non-white people fit into that routine construction of ‘black/Latino/Asian’ that you so frequently employ. Yes, indeed, you are not being inclusive even if you sometimes tack Native Americans on as an afterthought – you know, as though you’re not in their ancestral homeland or anything that would accord them some respect. In fact, there are many many many many many people in the world other than the ones you choose to mention. I would tell you about some of them, but I don’t want to contribute to that whole list-some-people-and-erase-other-people thing you do. And also it would be a great exercise if you could go learn about them! Maybe you could even meet some! Maybe you have been meeting some and have also been erasing their identities by acting like they were from ethnic/racial groups you’re more familiar with!The next one is much shorter, but probably even more poignant and yes, I agree that it sounds pretty much pissed off but it doesn't make it any less true:
It is not cool to force your ideas about race and racism on us and in doing so alter and damage our cultures, our strategies of resistance, so that you’re more comfortable. I seriously don’t know how you stomach doing that.Also, this is something I felt needed to be said for a long time (because honestly, generations of exchange students from Germany and many other countries have had to endure the same kind of really stupid questions from the Americans they went to school with):
We, depending on context, may well have TVs and soft drinks and jeans and newspapers and it is not incredibly amazing that countries that are not the United States have those things! USians didn’t even invent all those things.Honestly, when my sister went to the US for a year in 2001/02 she went there convinced that all the stories about stupid questions openly asked were exaggerations and stupid clichés... and then she got asked if we have trees in Germany. Seriously, I'm not joking. Someone earnestly asked her that and they asked her a lot of other questions like that. Please, please, please start educating your children about the world, not just the US.
Make them read the New York Times (since I love their articles on Germany and German issues), make them watch BBC World, make them read books from non-American authors. And when they go on a backpacking trip to Europe, please tell them not to hang out with Americans (you're amazingly easy to spot, without even having to hear you talking...) only but actually get to know the people of the country they're visiting... and plan more than just three days per country (it feels a little insulting, you know, even despite that we know that you only get three to four weeks of leave a year... but wouldn't you be insulted as well if we came to your state and planned three whole days for all of it?).
So, to wrap this all up, the last quote (again, emphasize by author):
Other countries exist! And the people in them? The world around you? Do not revolve around you. We have our own contexts, but sometimes it is hard to focus on anywhere but the United States because YOU KEEP THRUSTING EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR COUNTRY IN OUR FACES ALL THE TIME.Yes, it sounds pissed off, yes, it sounds bitchy... and yes, she's right. This is how it feels to be a non-American confronted with America all the day, all the time. Yes, a lot of us enjoy what we get to see of America and gladly take in American culture into our lives but... we'd be glad if you'd show the same earnest respect and interest to our cultures. Not just saying "Oh, you have a beautiful country/language/culture." but meaning it and accepting that just because it's not American it doesn't make it any less valid. And maybe even go and tell other Americans about it, too.
To conclude this: again, I know that the Americans on my flist are great people who understand me and who know what I'm talking about and who're honestly interested in my country and my culture (and God, do I wish you could come over here so I can drag you through my city and chew off your ears about its history and show you just about everything)... but a lot of Americans aren't and a lot of Americans do forget that their way of seeing and judging the world is not everyone else's. If you really want to do me a favor... give them some of your wisdom and your greatness ;)
And now... I will finish watching that ep of Army Wives and then finally go and see a hairdresser about the mess my hair is. Whee.
