"For some reason, the people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious. Perhaps they're frightened and defensive, or maybe they're not properly trained and make mistakes out of ignorance."
Since the first time I left the US I have tried to avoid this stigma in my behavior and to blend in as best I could. One thing that I particularly try to avoid when in areas of great poverty is taking pictures of suffering. In my mind, I can think of few actions that seem as arrogant or imperious as seeing a person struggling through this life and seizing the opportunity to bolster my iPhoto portfolio. I think that many Americans (at least those that I know or have traveled with) have this same aversion.
This was brought to mind recently by a humorous incident at a nearby park, in which one of my Ukrainian co-workers ran to the side of a drunk or homeless lady lying on the path only to whip out her camera and take a point-blank picture of the woman. This is not an isolated incident with my Ukrainian friends. Since arriving, Sarah and I have not witnessed the same hesitation to snap a gritty photo that many Americans would show.
Our friend Pastor Sergey showed us videos of his team of Ukrainians in India and were brought to tears (laughing) at how much they seemed like stereotypical American tourists. I bring this up not to criticize Ukrainians or their culture. I just think it's interesting that we Americans get a such a bad rap for being "ugly" when in reality we are just a bit less concerned about how we are perceived, more casual and generally more gregarious than many other cultures. Add to this the fact that tourists are tourists, no matter where they are from, and I think maybe after 50 years, the term should be retired.
I occasionally have international readers of this blog so I am especially requesting comments from non-Americans. I'm not looking for a diatribe of your political views about our foreign policy - just an assessment of actual American behaviors at home and abroad.
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That is so funny -- last week, my Executive Director and a Policy Associate were in Colombia, and they would not have been taking pictures of the suffering at all. However, when they got there, some of the Colombians that they were with did not suffer the same kind of concern for appearances.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you had the same kind of experience.....
In my friends' defense, the objects of their seemingly-prying photo shoots generally seem to be ambivalent about the paparazzi imitation unless they are having a bad hair day. It seems to be culturally acceptable to go to a person's house and take pictures of their poverty...as long as you come bearing humanitarian aid. I really am curious to be a part of the distribution of the next 2 truck-loads to clear customs next month.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if maybe our (Americans') hesitation comes from an underlying guilt at being so blessed. Any opinions?
Oh, by the way, "The Ugly American" was written by Lederer AND Burdick. Sorry about the omission.
ReplyDeleteThe 1% ruin it for the majority! Actually, I think it's hard for us to understand this considering who we are and where we live. Consider your typical New Yorker or Bostonian or even "Tex" from "The Big D". I don't mean to be a hater, but there are a lot of Americans that I've seen while in America that are ugly, let alone abroad. Every country has them but people only remember the bad ones.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think it all comes down to arrogance. I.e. thinking that everything in country X should be the same as it is over here (and not being able to understand why it may be different and/or thinking our way is automatically better).
Take, for example, the animated movie "Flushed Away". It's the same guy that did the claymation Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, etc. They are British mice. In one scene an American couple, tourists, come waltzing in. The guy has a southern accent and talks loudly. He's wearing a cowboy hat and a shirt that says something like "where's the beef"? He sees a soccer game and yells out something about how it's dumb that they can't use their hands, etc. Even I thought it was obnoxious. Anyway, you get my point...I don't think you have anything to worry about. You're hardly an obnoxious American...simply proven by the fact that you're AWARE of this issue and trying to avoid it. Obnoxious Americans (or any nationality) are obnoxious because they are clueless about how they come across.
Regarding taking pictures, I wouldn't take them either if I were in that situation. Have you considered that it's not as big of a deal for them (to see poverty, etc) because it's much more common? They probably don't think twice about that stuff and it's more of a shock to us because we don't see it every day.
Slick, I understand what you're saying but even you example makes my point. A Brit doing an animated caricature of a Texan...the kind of Texan that I haven't really seen in Texas, let alone abroad. It is an assumption of certain characteristics -not reality - that create people's image of us.
ReplyDeleteAs to the photo thing, I agree that they are much more accustomed to the poverty in their country and thus not as tentative, but I saw the same lack of hesitation in the Ukrainians in India, a wholly unfamiliar atmosphere. I guess my only point is that many Americans go out of the their way to avoid acting obnoxious (maybe more so than other nationalities) abroad and we are still saddled with the stereotypes.
I will say that Americans are prone to being shocked (sometimes too loudly) at a lack of luxuries that we consider necessities.
My thoughts on your comment (right under mine) might be to suggest that the most obnoxious Americans are the ones who seem to get the attention. If all that foreign nations see is the alleged bad/offensive/disrespectful behaviour, than they may not know they are wrong.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that it is a guilt for having a lot, although I think it would more likely play a part for Christians (we know we should be sensitive to the suffering and we might reflect on how much we have, leading to our restrained behaviour).
It is interesting to hear about the paparazzi instincts of people over there.
You're point is on like Donkey Kong...I will say that any stereotype is an exaggeration based on a bit of truth though. I have never seen a Texan like that either, but what makes it funny is that I can see bits of truth to it. It is then applied to the rest us even though it’s completely false. I think we’re saying similar things but in different ways…I only brought that up to say I agree with you but can understand their pretenses even if they are wrong (based on my observations of Americans). However, I could say the same thing about any other nationality that has stereotypes…they’re wrong but still have small bits of truth that are periodically reinforced by the minority.
ReplyDeleteRegarding whether we are now going out of our way to not be ugly…I couldn’t really tell you. I’d like to think you and me are not that way anyway. :)
p.s. my word verification is "ficeporx"...although it's not a real word it still sounds funny for some odd reason