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??

no one has denied the diversity of people or the distinction between a political entities actions and the individuals within that entities borders. in fact most of the concerns voiced about 'america' on here are concerns for the right's of the people within america that appear to be being trodden all over rather frequently.

for me, at heart, i don't believe there is such a thing as 'an american'. there are men and women and children, those with power and those without, those who scrabble about trying to make a living, those who never have to work a day in their whole life if they so choose as they own more than they could never spend, those who are privileged yet use their position to denigrate the poor and vulnerable and make their lives more difficult out of some strange perversion to keep them in their place or keep them poor, those who fight for the rights of the vulnerable, those who bury their heads in the likes of fox news and refuse a world view of compassion and those who choose awareness and engagement a myriad of things that say far more about a person than which line on a map they happened to be born within.

in some ways i think nationality is dying - certainly as a big factor in who people are. my group is an international one, my enemy is those who exploit the vulnerable and take take take in the face of others starving. those who stand up against injustice and are aware of social justice, empathy and humanity and retain it in the face of propoganda and the devious artifices of divide and rule and scapegoating. they're my people - i have far more in common with them wherever they are in the world than i do with say david cameron or the MD of unilever or a british man who prostitutes women for a living.

when i criticise 'america' i'm aware i'm talking about a political and financial elite and the people who stay willfully loyal to them in the face of all manner of atrocities. i'm not criticising the men women and children powerless to have any influence and trying to none the less or simply trying to live out their lives being good to people and surviving the actions of an elite who doesn't give a damn about them.

is that clear enough?

Wow, as an American who has been here for 17 Years an considers the UK my home now, this thread has been a real kick in the teeth.

Well it serves you right for having overly white and straight teeth. You know we don't like them.

Thanks sash.. Humor (or humour) is much appreciated..

when i criticise 'america' i'm aware i'm talking about a political and financial elite and the people who stay willfully loyal to them in the face of all manner of atrocities.

I agree with this.

Numpty.. You make a lot of good points.. The one you don't actually say but I think you mean is that nationalism.. or patriotism .. is dying..And you're hoping for "one " socialist world. Nice idea but.. not everyone agrees with you,, Much like the Islamists want a Caliphate.. There's lots of people that want a world that fits their hopes/dreams/idealism.. Unfortunately.. the real world doesn't work like that.. Different people have different agendas ..Right or wrong

the English do slag off Americans but I'm sure Americans do too. but hey Brits slag ofF the French a lot havnt you noticed? And Germans are forget branded on par with nazis in many so called comedies.

Personally I don't like it I don't believe that all Americans have great teeth either considering there is a great deal of poverty over there that the government seems to turn a blind eye to. I think the Brits would rather spend their money on things they need, and cosmetic surgery on teeth is not a need. I was asking my dentist about teeth Whitening she told me it's not worth it in the long run. It can make teeth sensitive and lasts between 1-3 years depending on your eating habits. better to have good cleaning habits and good ole bicarbonate soda.

I went on an exchange with 16+ when I was 17 to New England, and Boston. To be honest I found them as I saw them on tv, overly friendly and confident. I did also think they spoke a lot and overnalysed things but that can be a positive tool especially in school. On observing their school life to the british way I'd say they encouraged kids as young as preschool to do public speeches which gave them superb communication skills and confidence which british kids on the whole seem to lack. I know out of the 30 kids in my class only 2-3 were very confident the rest including moi, would shy away from questions , forget presentations.

Another thing I liked was their hospitality to their guests and their customer service. Wow the british sales assistants could learn a lot here. high end store or regular department store assistants made you feel like you mattered. It was always madam never a grunt as is the norm in the uk sadly.

To be honest I don't care if they sound fake when they say how are you madam, having a nice day etc, it's better than just looking like someone has died, and completely ignoring a customer. I've yet to meet a rude american, I'm sure they exist.

Crowler .. So if I criticize "Britain" and it's only about the "upper class" it's OK?

You'd have to elaborate, I have no idea what you're talking about Arealmanithink.

The Brits are miserable
They love talking about the weather because they have nothing else to speak of
They love getting drunk at least once a week just to make a fool of themselves.
They're incredibly rude

on the other hand they're very generous donating to charities
Have a sense of community when a problem arises I.e natural disasters, missing persons inquests etc
They make the best fish n chips in the world
The women are happy to walk around without make up on
They love tea and cake mm what's not to like?
They're very accepting of different cultures even though groups like the bnp would like us to think otherwise. Just based on that idea I prefer the uk above the USA. I think there's a huge race problem in the usa started with the slave trade and has never really been sorted I doubt it ever will be.
Yes we have racism in the uk but I really don't think it's as big an issue as it is in the USA. But I may just be naive and seeing the world through blinkers

Viking And you have already made a generalisation about Brits. Should I cry racism?

To be fair, racism usually only comes into play if you're in a minority in the country that it happens in.

This thread is quite amusing, because amongst many European countries, the UK is seen as the America of Europe. And so many people in this thread are woefully ignorant about what other Europeans think of them. Lets just say quite a lot of the comments I've heard are similar.

That's why the Brits always get nul points in the Eurovision Song Contest - that's just how seriously people take all this!

i don't know how you jumped to socialism. what i'm thinking more is of a critical of mass seeing themselves as global citizens, being aware of the world and politics and ethics on a global scale and seeing themselves as the human beings who live on a planet with members of their race scattered all over it, with limited resources, with global forces and conditions be they environmental, financial, ethical or otherwise.

we don't live in a nation based world anymore. globalisation is kind of old news not something that's coming or little nations can try and cloister themselves away from.

i'm also talking about a raising of consciousness to a point where we just don't fucking accept that dropping bombs on hundreds of thousands of civilians and expecting it to solve anything rather than just create a whole new ricocheting series of events that create even bigger problems is ok or a necessary evil.

i suppose i'm talking about growing the fuck up essentially as a species.

that should have said a 'critical mass of human human beings'