Lost in Transportation

It was my goal to write two posts a month, and here I am on the last day of April taking the last chance I've got to stick to my goal. So, the month in review: I got a job teaching extra classes for big money (at least as far as this humble Fulbrighter is concerned), I've got a new class schedule because the seniors have graduated already, and every day is filled with small moments which astonish me. But of course that seems par for the course. At school I encounter a thousand small consequences of the way mass media influences people. It's so easy to see in kids, who are still open enough to accept challenges to what they think about something. It's harder somewhat to gauge the influence of parents and friends, but the media influences stand out pretty clearly. Particularly upsetting is to realize how our movies, music, and media portray such a racist image of African Americans. Today I was explaining how offensive the word "bitch" is, and how using sexualized words like bitch, whore, slut, etc. to criticize other women is very harmful, and that women are particularly guilty of doing this to one other. One girl innocently said, "black men use those words all the time." This struck me as proof of how, once a film, song, or text leave our borders, it takes on an air of basic truth that it might not have so directly within our borders. Americans know on some level, that when they see images of an angry black young man from the projects, that he is a product of his environment. They are more likely to have an idea of the range of social conditions that have caused him to become this way. They may also have real life experience which put the images into context. Of course, I believe constant exposure to the same stereotyped images of black people must have a damaging effect on the minds of all Americans. This effect is more subtle and difficult to quantify however, than the effects I see on young people here. Here, these images represent truth, they are taken to represent the people they portray.

Sometimes this leads to misunderstandings so big, they are even funny. For example, they see our somewhat sexy, party movies, and they think we are a sexually open or even libertine culture. This is so far from the truth that it is flat out comical. We are a nation where people get worked up into a frenzy about the smallest whiff of something sexual, something having to do with the human body itself, where when an artistic photograph of young Miley Cirus, queen of teen purity, shows a hint of her back, suggesting that under her covering she is naked, it is enough to provoke the outright wrath of mothers everywhere. I thought about that photograph a bit, and realized that it is not about what it shows, in fact it shows nothing which in itself is provocative, it is the reminder of what lies unseen that riles our puritan morals. It is the same reason that Arthur Schnitzler's Reigen was so provocative: provocation by omission, by leaving it up to the minds of the viewers he creates a space more provocative than any he could have put on stage. Anyway, I'm getting off track. So my point there was, American storytelling when it crosses borders is taken as a report of fact.

When I told Viktoriya that in the images of angry black men calling women bitch all the time, is not an actual portrayal of black men in general, she was sincerely surprised, telling me that that's what she's always seen. I told her that I grew up in a very white town, and I had heard many men (and women of course, which was my original point) who talk to women that way. I told her it had absolutely nothing to do with race, and everything to do with upbringing, socio-economic conditions, and education. Of course in our country minorities are underprivileged at a consistently higher rate than the Caucasian majority, which can lead to the impression that black people are naturally inclined to be a certain way. I told her though, that this is a false impression, although an understandable one given the images she's been exposed to. It had never occurred to her, and she had never been told that these images might be misleading. Just as easily as she had accepted that idea from the media that black people were a certain way, she assimilated the new information that this was not true, that these images are misleading and make for entertainment, not documentation.

It might have been possible that her understanding could just have been a one case thing, but my experience is that it is the rule, not the exception. Boys here worship their thug life rap idols, putting their image on a pedestal and seeing it in the face of every black person they come across. These images are so strong, and as they leave our shores, they gain strength, becoming unquestionable fact. I wonder whether this is a new problem, thanks to globalization. I am hard pressed to say, as this global world is really the only one I've ever known.

Well, I was planning on writing a light-hearted fluffy post tonight, but it seems that there is usually something more pressing on my mind. Tomorrow is May Day. A big deal here in Berlin, it's a favorite time for riots, burning cars and neo-nazis vs. punks. Should be interesting! Maybe May Day will provide me with some lighter material to reflect on. Mmmm.... or maybe not!

American and Abroad

Anti-Americanism. It's strange that I've only been moved to address this topic now, after so many months living here in Berlin. I'm not sure whether I've simply become more sensitive to it recently, after an unpleasant encounter on the street, or whether it really has become more undeniable due to changes in socio-political and economic conditions worldwide. Last week was the annual Fulbright Conference in Berlin, which brought together Fulbrighters from across Germany and Europe together for panel discussions, presentations, and "networking". I met up with a couple Vassar grads, which was very comforting. It's really a pleasure to meet with so many like-minded people, especially when it can be so difficult to find in daily life.

After the party on the last night of the conference we were grabbing curry wurst and fries from the Imbiss (street food/fast food vender) under the Eberswalderstr. U-Bahn. We were in the process of picking up and paying for our food when this tall, hippy-like guy elbows through and orders as though we weren't there. Hearing us speaking English, he pulled the food we'd ordered off the counter and started muttering "I hate Americans, stupid Americans, I hate you. I hate Obama..." and so forth. Jeanette, a Vassar girl, countered his odious ejaculations by ostentatiously saying how happy it made her that when people visit the US they are treated with respect and treated to good American hospitality. Surely, this was the most positive response one could make. I however, was seriously peeved by this jerk's sense of entitlement, and I did not appreciate how he pushed me when I tried to save my friends' victuals. So I pushed him back and told him in his own language to take off. My reaction may not have been so peaceable, but I couldn't just let him push me around. Was my or Jeanette's effort productive? Probably not. Perhaps one of the most surprising things about the incident (other than the fact that he said he hated Obama, who everyone I've encountered in Germany loves, and didn't mention the president everyone loves to hate) was that this sort of encounter is not all that unusual. All the Fulbrighters present had previously experienced similar bile. They weren't even that upset by it. It has become frighteningly commonplace.

In the days since the street encounter the blatant stereotypes I've heard about Americans (that we don't cook and only eat fast food, that we're uninformed and unintelligent, you know the drill) have become harder to ignore. Patricia tells me I just need to let it slide off my back. In some ways I know she's right. As the civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson said at a speech she gave at my school here in Berlin, hate hurts the haters more than the hated. They have to live with it inside them, and hate is corrosive. I can turn my back on them and walk away from their hatred, they carry it wherever they go.

Perhaps this is why it is other manifestations of Anti-Americanism that bother me even more. The other day I talked with a British man about music, saying that I thought it was in modern music that the British and Americans have had their greatest collaborations. He immediately got defensive, disavowing any American influence on British music. Of course this is patently ridiculous. After all, both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones got their start as bands playing covers of American Blues and Rock music. To say their music was not influenced by this is just plain silly. Also, my argument was that the influence goes both ways. Still, the idea that there was any collaboration involved between great modern American and British musicians was abhorrent to this guy. Collaboration and cooperation should be among the highest goals of any two nations in their dealings with each other, and yet, people are utterly turned off by it when you bring it up.

When I talk to people from all over the world who revel in the problems the US is currently facing, declaring gleefully that America is a nation on the decline, their Schadenfreude burns me. They savor the suffering and tribulations of the American people in a way that deeply disheartens me. And somehow, this sort of attitude is acceptable, and even encouraged by the way America is portrayed in the news media. I understand, that what often lies below these feelings is simply resentment of the strength of the American presence worldwide. And yet, people everywhere keep buying our music, our movies, our pop culture, even (regrettably) our fast food. They love our cultural production, and resent it at the same time. Untangling these sorts of complicated love-hate feelings seems nearly impossible sometimes. But as Patricia reminds me, all we can do as individuals is be the examples of that which we hope our nation represents, be accepting, critical, well-informed, and hopeful in the face of great challenges. Of course, I am also acutely aware of the failings of my nation's government, and the ignorance and sometimes arrogance of many of its people. I am aware of how far we have yet to go, how the ideal of working to create "a more perfect union" is threatened by an unjust war, propaganda of fear, and personal political agendas. It is hard to be an American living abroad, but while it presents the greatest personal trials, it also presents the greatest opportunity to smash apart the ignorant and pervasive stereotypes about Americans, so that people can begin to form more complicated, well-rounded and realistic impressions. This is why the sweetest sound to my ears, is to hear someone say, I didn't think Americans were like you.

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