Racism

[Arealmanithink]

I'm American. .I see a helluva lot of people slagging off Americans.. People that usually proudly proclaim their non racist beliefs.. Sorry but isn't making assumptions about people from another country and stereotyping then .. racism??

I worked with Americans for many years. They were cheerful but they didn't seem able to say simple words like please very well - it irked - and they were also very very rude about the English whilst unable to take teasing in the other direction.

My career's mostly been in American companies, and it makes a difference which state they're from, IMO. We bonded very well (to my surprise) with the Texans, who got our humour far better than the New Yorkers did. Although it may be company culture. My current American employer, I don't notice the differences so much.

"World War II was all but won by the time the Americans joined in"

WW2 had been running for about 27 months when the USA joined in.

If the war was 'all but won' by the Allies at that point, the fact that it took a further 41 months and 250,000 American dead in Europe to actually win it suggests that American assistance in WW2 was in fact a very serious drawback to the Allied effort.

And I'm not entirely sure that was the case.

It's a heck of a large continent to generalise about, which part are you from?

Canada, Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil , it's a big place.

america is a political and economic entity not a race obviously. an americanism is not about hating people by their nationality but about disagreeing with for example political foreign policy or economic policies. i'm not against decent american people and would see myself as their allies in wanting a fairer economic system, a better record on the rights of women and a less aggressive approach to foreign policy.

racism (other than being about ethnicity which has been established) is about assuming all people with a particular trait are the same. most people i know who you'd describe as anti american are well aware that there are great americans fighting for a more just society.

The most acceptable face of xenophobia (the semantics of phasing has been done to death already by previous posters) is against the French. I don't think I've ever seen anyone object to their stereotype.

*phrasing

i have noticed that very often the 'bad guy' in a US film/tv drama has an 'English' speaking accent......

Yes, and they also get actors with English accents to play Nazis - what are they trying to say?!

I didn't have an opinion either way on Americans - there were some at Uni and I found them pushy and rather aggressive but nothing too offensive.
That was until I went to the Caribbean twice and ended up in AI resorts with a load. Maybe there's a certain type of both person from all countries who go to these places ( weddings not my choice) but Jesus Christ I have never met such a bunch of rude ignorant racists!! We were warned not to speak to the staff as they would rob us. We booked a boat trip via the brother of one of the staff and had an amazing time. When we got back a few other guests told us if we hadn't been back on time they were going to call the police as you can't trust " these people"
They were really unpleasant people and actually quite dull.
Maybe we were unlucky but this happened both times. My friend moved to NYC recently and the stories she tells me are unbelievable.
Also, anyone not sure about Americans should watch " when animals attack" on Sky. 9 times out of 10 the attacks are caused by dumb Americans wondering what the lion mummy would do if they picked up her baby by its tail or similar. My favourite was the one who went into the jungle looking for elephants despite being warned many times by the local it was mating season and not safe. When he was ( inevitably) attacked he decided he was too badly injured to survive so tried to reach into his own chest cavity to crush his heart so he died quickly - I am honestly not making this up!!!
Luckily for the muppet his diaphragm was in the way and the locals rescued him and he survived.

The only americans i have met have had a very inflated sense of self worth and an ego to match.

And they remind me of the play ground bully who will tease and tease other kids but as soon as someone teases them they don't like it.

Oh does it matter if the OP said xenophobia or racism, we know what they meant.

Do the Brits actually have embarressingly bad teeth? I know lots of people do have bad teeth, but if tv serves me right so do the Americans. I'm not really into this capping nonsense or bleeched teeth, they do not mean healthy teeth. Do you mean healthy teeth or nice looking teeth? I have some quite straight healthy nashers, but they are by no means as perfect shaped as the capped ones, should I be embarressed? Genuine question.

I don't know if it's the same as Canada, but certainly my experience of Canadians is that they need to do a lot of sport, and you're lazy if you don't work out most days (I was at uni so this is a small pool to get my information from) and I felt very very lazy around them!

That is my only generalization.

I do clearly remember our local police trying to chase down the culprits of abusive graffiti on a farm gate for racism, because they had put 'American' as part of the abuse against a person (who was indeed American).

That was until I went to the Caribbean twice and ended up in AI resorts with a load. Maybe there's a certain type of both person from all countries who go to these places ( weddings not my choice) but Jesus Christ I have never met such a bunch of rude ignorant racists!! We were warned not to speak to the staff as they would rob us. We booked a boat trip via the brother of one of the staff and had an amazing time. When we got back a few other guests told us if we hadn't been back on time they were going to call the police as you can't trust " these people"

If I based my opinion of British people on the types they make all those 'Drunk Brits abroad' TV programs that would be slightly unfair and inaccurate wouldn't it?

Not sure why it's OK to do the same to Americans. But that's the OP's point really isn't it?

I have performed and worked with many Americans and American companies and I find them to be, on the whole, no different to Brits. As others have pointed out, any prejudice based on nationality isn't racism anyhow.

While Americans say Brits are cold and unfriendly, I find Americans fake and one dimensional, rather basic.

It's hard when you're clearly better than everyone else.

Americans are loud

Seriously though, all the Americans I've met have great voice projection. Makes them sound very cocky confident.

I don't find Americans any louder than people from the Caribbean whom I think of as very loud or Spanish who couldn't speak quietly if their lives depended on it.

The loudest person in my office is the other British person (and probably I am second...)

OTOH the Americans in my office all say 'Hi' when you pass them in the corridor which is deeply over-friendly and single-dimensional of them.

Actually, if we're judging loudness from the poolside then Cockneys have got it covered! I always end up on the sun loungers next the them.

Other than that, my Nigerian neighbours are bloody loud AND they all speak at the same time over each other and still seem to understand what's going on. They amaze me. Always have a happy tone to their voice too even when they appear to be talkng about something serious.

OTOH the Americans in my office all say 'Hi' when you pass them in the corridor which is deeply over-friendly and single-dimensional of them.

I'd have said shallowly over-friendly...

Saying hello to random people is only acceptable in the UK if each has a dog, or if you're walking well away from towns.

Saying hello to random people is only acceptable in the UK if each has a dog, or if you're walking well away from towns

Oh this is so true. If a random let onto me in the city centre I'd be very suspicious.

British have far worse teeth. I'm alway bemused by wealthy Brits with bad teeth. If you're American, perfect teeth are an outward indication of wealth.