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??

a country where medicine sans frontiers actually has to operate to offer life saving treatment to citizens despite it being one of the richest nations on earth.

i wanna live somewhere where i'm allowed to own a gun and shoot a black person for knocking on my door but not allowed to take the morning after pill if politicians get their way.

god! the good americans i know would be nodding along with me because they too are disgusted by travesties like this and i feel bad for them having to be smeared with the same reputation.

people who defend america, it's treatment of women, it's warmongering stance, it's modern day imperialistic agenda and outrageous treatment of the poor i find hard to stomach. those who defend whilst proudly believing they live in the best nation on earth make me worry about their capacity for rational thinking.

"I suspect that a lot of it is just jealousy rather than a deep seated dislike"

LOL, not quite sure what we're meant to be jealous of? If it's not on fire, it's under water or frozen & when it's finally gone out/dried up it doesn't get rebuilt 'cos you're skint!

The poor in America are truly poor, one thing that shocked me when I was over there was the fact that the transition between affluence & poverty is so quick - literally a wrong turn off of the main drag and we were in some of the roughest areas I saw over there.

It was nearly comparable to India with regards to the very visible gulf between have & have not.

On the other hand - some lovely scenery, some of the wittiest and sharpest comedy/sitcoms in the world & some fantastic Saturday afternoon TV - I can't be the only one addicted to Storage Hunters & Mythbusters can I?

Individual people and small groups- Nice, normal people on the whole.
Large Groups/Corporations - Get a bit "serious" & wide eyed, strange phrases get quoted.
Country Level - Pain in the arse meddlers that tick the world off & just don't get it!

Americans appear to be indoctrinated into believing that life in the US is vastly preferable to life anywhere else, and that all non Americans are hugely jealous of them.
Whereas many of us look on in dismay at the reality of life in the US for many people - a huge gap between rich and poor, and, for the poor, and probably many other people with argumentative health insurance companies, constant fear of falling ill or suffering injury. I could go on and on.

it also seems like a lot of the 'haves' in america view themselves as poor. cost of living there is lower by a long way yet americans on 30k (with health insurance thrown in) think of themselves as the struggling poor.

I totally agree with you numpty and dromedary. I am appalled too and cannot understand the thought processes of many Americans. But we are not ALL like that.

Oh dear this has turned a bit nasty!

I'm still thinking about our bad teeth, I have nice clean teeth though, so I am not an embarressment for that.

i very much know you're not all like that ByTheSea and i really feel for you. i hope that people like you can keep educating the public and eventually be the majority and get rid of the scary saudi-esque policy making.

can you imagine living in a state where it is illegal to have an abortion, impossible to get decent welfare as a single mother forced to have a baby you didn't want, illegal to teach evolution in school but legal to carry a lethal weapon and use it if someone steps on your property? crazy stuff.

The point was.. Why is it OK to slag off Americans.. But not Pakistanis (not a race), Muslims (also not a race)..etc. Well you get the idea.. And still think you're the model of tolerance.. Seems like the road to Cognitive Dissonance or at least a lack of self awareness..

I thought the vast majority of Pakistan were Muslims?

Why is it okay to slag off the English? Answer that and you've probably answered your own question.

oh i'm perfectly happen to slag off the political regime and misogyny and warmongering in pakistan too arealman! not pakistanis much as i'm not slagging off americans either.

if we can't slag off political regimes and financial systems and foreign policies we're screwed.

Oh it turned into an American bashing thread.

I guess you were right OP.

I would agree with this. Worked in a University & met many American students who were SO naive, but lovely, and others who really believe that the good 'ol US of A is the only civilised place on earth and that all other countries are backwards in comparison.

I was told, by explanation, that their TV news is an hour long but that only five minutes of it is dedicated to what's going on outside the US, so no wonder they have no idea about other countries/nations/people.

And so, OP, if your countrymen behave as if they are superior, people won't like it!

LesMiss - You have totally missed the point of my post.

(1) Look up race. And understand how anti-American rhetoric can't be considered "racist".

(2) Read my post again. That act you quoted also says people with no religion are to be considered a "religious group" for the purposes of the act. Realize that atheists are not NOT a religious group. Now understand that act is defining its SCOPE and not providing dictionary definitions.

Check out a dictionary. You will see what racism means and how is not about nationality.

Thanks wobbly.. Point made with at least one..

Cote.. thanks for looking beyond your garden fence.

Oh and gamer.. It's not OK to slag off the British.. Jokes based on stereotypes.. fine.. But actual attacks ..? not so much.

I'm team America! I love America/Americans.

In fact, with me, I'd argue the opposite.

I love America/Americans so much that they would get a huge amount of leeway as far as I am concerned. When they wouldn't necessarily deserve it.

It is trendy among the British to slag off Americans. A lot of it is out of resentment; resentment is like the recurring poison that seeps thru much of British culture. Culture of envy, culture of resentment, whatever you call it. Which is really sad for Americans like me who prefer to live in Britain.

I think someone like the UN defines racism very broadly to include nationality, but I must admit I find that ridiculous. On the other hand, Europeans are hopelessly naive about racism in their midst. The European intellectual class has a theory that if you don't talk about it, it doesn't exist. That's why there's such paltry research about racial inequality in Europe. Americans get slagged off for their public struggle with racism, but that's because Americans have a culture of being direct about problems they do acknowledge.

To be fair, Americans struggle to acknowledge the importance of class which the British are very good at recognising and even talking about calmly. Different cultures, different nettles to grasp.

I suspect that the very small percentage of Americans who make it out of America (other than to do a rushed coach trip) do get a shock when they find that people confront them over the kinds of issues that we've been talking about. I suppose it's a natural reaction to resist taking on other people's views, and one way of doing that is just to blame it all on resentment or envy. Especially when you've been told all your life that America is the greatest. I have a relative who visited the US as a teenager to stay with US relatives. They actually offered to adopt her, so that she would enjoy the privilege of US citizenship (though this would apparently have meant giving up UK citizenship).

How many people realize that the US is the same size as Europe.. Including Eastern Europe (Almost twice if you count Alaska)?

You can slag off anyone if you have a reason. The point about racism is there is no reason.

All members of a race are different. Nothing you dislike about some will apply to all of them. That's not just wrong, but really stupid.

So I don't hate Jewish people, but I do disapprove of some decisions by the Israeli government. I don't hate americans, but I disapprove of the NSA spying on us all. I don't like the attitude that US law should apply to other countries (not shared by all US citizens) and so on.

Does the size matter?

I was told, by explanation, that their TV news is an hour long but that only five minutes of it is dedicated to what's going on outside the US, so no wonder they have no idea about other countries/nations/people.

When I lived in the US, I was bemused by an ad for the local paper proudly proclaiming 'We put West Chester ahead of the world'.

But - as I said, 'America' is heterogeneous. I work for a US company, full of wonderful people who do look outside their own borders. Actually come to think the team I work with doesn't at this point include any born-in-the-USA 'americans' ... well, if the place and people were so bad they wouldn't choose to be there.