Disclaimer: Originally published on the St. Cloud State University campus paper, the University Chronicle on the Nov. 16 2009 issue. Written by Jun-Kai Teoh, Managing Online Editor.
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Americans are ignorant, arrogant and insensitive. “How can they not know that there are two Congos in Africa? Not one, but two! How can they not know that ‘Malaysian’ is a nationality and not an ethnicity? How can they not know tha-”
It’s usually at that point in a conversation that I laugh and walk away or prepare myself to deliver a tongue lashing of epic proportions to the insufferable individual making such statements.
I’ve heard many variations of the above. Sometimes spoken outright, sometimes implied, and at times even from Americans themselves.
I think it’s absolute cowdung. I think it’s buffalo-manure. I think it’s cattle-feces.
Some Americans may be ignorant, arrogant and insensitive, but you find the same type of people in every country in the world.
They’re in every single continent, in every single country and in every single city.
Arrogant, insensitive and ignorant donkeys are not geographically limited to the United States of America.
Sometimes, I would meet a non-American person or two that would pipe in and use themselves as an example of being a person that knows what’s going on outside of their own country.
They would say something along the lines of “hey I know of global economy and politics and yadda yadda yadda” with a large smirk on their face.
Well, there you have it: an arrogant person that’s non- American.
But also, they fail to realize that they are a single individual. Not nearly enough to be used as an example or representative of a nation or continent or land-mass.
And if they’re an international student, they fail to realize that by being an international student in itself they already have an unfair advantage of sorts.
International students usually come from middle to upper-class households. International students know in advance what they will be facing when they pick the country they wish to go to. More often than not, they try to learn of the country of their destination (Surprise! It’s the US!).
Then they come here and they feel surprised that Americans are not familiar with their country, culture or whatnot.
Chances are that the Americans they meet when they first arrive do not come from the same privileged background as an international student that has the opportunity to pursue education overseas.
And how can Americans possibly prepare themselves the way an international student can prepare him/herself?
Is it really fair to hold Americans to such a ridiculous standard? A double standard, at that.
Sometimes I meet Americans that feel the same way as well. They feel that Americans are, well, ignorant, arrogant and insensitive to others. They feel that they know so little of the world and all that jazz.
Just because the U.S. is a superpower in global politics and probably the whole world has their eyes on the U.S. (now now, don’t start inflating yourself!) doesn’t mean that naturally the Americans have to know everything there is about whatever it is that their country may have its hands in.
Is it really fair to judge Americans in such an unfair manner?
Keep in mind that I am in no way saying that there aren’t ignorant, arrogant and insensitive Americans. I’m just saying that there are people like that all over the world, not just in the U.S.
The problem is that while the U.S. is being judged at such an incredulously preposterous standard, the rest of the world is free to go on being their ignorant, arrogant and insensitive selves.
Or, if you look at it another way, unless non-Americans are prepared to start feeling cynical about their own country the same way, they should not judge Americans in such an unfair way.
The whole idea of a diverse campus is that both Americans and non-Americans are ignorant (one way or another) and we’re here to help educate each other.
It is not that the Americans are ignorant and international students are here to educate them.
The same message goes to both Americans and non-Americans: We’re here to learn.
The moment anyone starts feeling superior about themselves and view the others in such a negative fashion, it’s all downhill from there.
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