The company that I write for has a number of American clients. Yesterday at work two of my co-workers were in my office talking about one of them that is giving us a bit of trouble. One of them said, “Well, you know how the Americans are – rather, ru…”, and then as she glanced at me with a look of sheepish recognition, “…uh, direct.” Followed immediately with an apology, assurances that she didn’t mean all Americans, and so on.

But I’m pretty used to this kind of thing. As an American expatriate this is a common – and in this case, rather innocuous – type of exchange. My co-workers, colleagues, friends and random acquaintances often forget that I’m an American. I endeavor to be, with apologies to Graham Greene, a quiet American. Having made the decision to be a permanent expatriate – a migrant – I try hard to fit in to the culture that I’ve chosen. I don’t fit the caricature of the typical American that most of my colleagues have in their heads, so it’s easy for them to forget my citizenship and to express their true feelings about we Yanks in casual conversation.

A question I often get from my readers when describing these sometimes frustrating encounters is “Is that really what they think of us?” I always try to make people feel better. “No, only some of them. It’s not really that bad”, I soothe. The grim reality is that, in general, people in the countries which I have visited or lived  do not like Americans. There are exceptions – the occasional Americanophile, the folks that have lived in the States or met a number of American expats – but most of the rest of the Western world have quite strong feelings of antipathy toward us. The exchange I described at the beginning of this post is a mild one. The worst are when I’m faced with a strong-willed local and asked to justify American culture – one that I’m not really that happy with myself – or lectured at length about the wrongs perpetrated on the world by the U.S.A.

This is based in large part on our nation’s behavior in the last eight years. George Bush’s sledgehammer-as-diplomacy has alienated many of our allies. But it runs deeper than that. If you read the comments on my last post, a lot of non-Americans recoil at the spread of American culture and consumerism. This new brand of commercial imperialism has been more pervasive than Bush’s military incursions in the Middle East. The rest of the world is angry that there are probably only two or three countries in the world that lack a McDonalds, the fact that American chain stores have moved into Europe and Australia – cutting down local businesses in their wake. People in Perth, Manchester and Galway are disgusted that most of their television and movies now come with an American accent. Folks in Aberdeen and Adelaide are angry that American-style privitization of public services has gotten them more expensive and lower quality services.

Unfortunately it’s not just our political and economic policies. If you asked someone on the streets of York, Darwin or Christchurch what they thought of when they thought of an average American they would use words like fat, obnoxious, close-minded, high-maintenance, and – above all – ignorant. If you asked that same person how many Americans they knew, how many were in their close social circle, they would likely say zero to two. So where does this impression come from? TV, movies and tourists.

You see, we are doing ourselves a disservice. By exporting our crap television and our increasingly derivative movies, we are presenting an image of ourselves to the rest of the world that does not reflect reality. The bilge that we’re spewing into the world – and not just the environmental toxins – are a source of a lot of resentment from the rest of the world. Are Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Brittany Spears typical Americans? What about Bill O’Reilly, Neil Cavuto, Keith Olbermann and Ann Coulter? What about George Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin? Are any of these people like you or me? The tourist thing is a tricky one. I find a lot of my fellow Americans annoying when I run across them as tourists. There seems to be something in our psyche (the British are guilty of this as well) that demands that when visiting a foreign country it be as similar to our home as possible. What this means is that we get the reputation, fairly in my experience, of being loud, intractable, demanding and

But enough self-loathing. Here’s the thing, the thing that you (if you’re an American reading this blog) and I already know – we’re getting a bad rap. There are Americans that fit the stereotype – absolutely. I’ve met them. I’ve seen them in the Wal-Mart, yelling across the shop at their kids, waddling through the aisles filled with giant bags of potato chips in “No Spin Zone” or “These Colors Don’t Run” t-shirts, clinging desperately to their jiggling mounds of fat. You see them on the news – the media loves the extremes – you see them parodied in films and on the TV. But stereotypes are a dangerous thing. For example, if you based your opinion of Australians on what you’ve seen on films and TV you may think that Steve Irwin or Mick Dundee or The Sheepherders were typical Aussie blokes. Based on TV and movies, the streets of London would be populated with Mr. Beans, Edwinas and Pattys and Simon Cowells.

And this is what I find frustrating about living abroad – stereotypes. I’ve got as good a sense of humor as anyone, and if I’m talking to someone who has spent time in the States or has American friends, then I’m happy to play around with the stereotypes and throw them right back in their face. We used to have a great time in my lab in Oxford teasing each other about cultural stereotypes. With people from seven or eight different countries (depending on whether you consider Scotland a country) there was ample material to work with. But, when confronted with people that have never set foot in the United States, have never spent time with Americans yet have firm ideas about what we are like and who we are – that’s not in good fun. That is dealing with ignorance and ignorance is something for which I have very little tolerance, regardless of citizenship. I had a friend in Oxford who used to say that when you found something that you didn’t like in another person – “if you spot it, you got it”. In other words, we dislike in others what we dislike in ourselves. I think that this applies to this whole national psyche debate. Australians are getting fatter – blame the Americans pushing McDonalds down their throats. Brits are getting irrevocably into debt – blame the loose American-style credit regulations.

There is an old cliché about familiarity breeding contempt.  I think the converse is true here. Dr. O’C said it well in her comment on the last post – her experience in America gave her greater respect for Americans. My experience in Britain gave me greater respect for the wealth and depth of British culture. Meeting, working with and making friends with normal people from different countries has helped me transcend my personal stereotypes and prejudices about those nationalities. The only way to get past a stereotype or a prejudiced opinion is to get to know the people about whom you’ve formed a false opinion. That being the case, I’m like a frickin’ cultural ambassador for the U.S.A. – traveling the world showing just how mild-mannered, thoughtful, intelligent and modest Americans really are. I think that the State Department should consider giving me a stipend for spreading the truth about Americans – that we’re not all that different than anyone else – no better and certainly no worse.

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Image credits:

Typical American

Typical Aussie

Typical Brit

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