United states in name only as myths fuel misunderstanding
Some ills are not defined by borders or cultures. They live inside all of us, writes Rick Santos
A RELATIVELY high-profile Australian judge once asked me how America produced so many top-level Olympic swimmers. I told him I was from Boston, which is a pretty cold place, so I didn’t know a whole lot about swimming. Ask me about ice hockey.
That exchange happened not long after I had moved to Tasmania almost 21 years ago. Had it been more recent I wouldn’t have been so surprised. I was surprised because back then I did not realise that Australians think of Americans as a cohesive group with a collective conscience that applies to everyone. We are not.
If you think Donald Trump speaks for everyone, then you have absolutely no clue about the level of disgust some Americans have for other Americans. If you think only black people in the US are horrified about what happened to George Floyd, then you don’t get it.
But why would you get it? Based on my conversations with Aussies over the past couple of decades and what I’ve read, it is clear that by and large you know much more about my home country than Americans know about Australia. But so much of what you know is corrupted by Hollywood versions of reality and the filter of a biased media here.
For example, people are shocked when I tell them that one of the disadvantages of living in Australia is the level of healthcare that I receive. No, that’s impossible, they say. Everyone knows the US health system is terrible, right? Not really. Most people have jobs that include extras such as partially funded health insurance. So, someone like me, who had a professional job but not a fancy one, had access to very affordable top-level healthcare. The care was not necessarily better, but it was so much more affordable.
But that’s a bit of digression from the point that many Aussies’ perspective of America is based on falsities. Terrible movies starring Sylvester Stallone that depict all Yanks as bloodthirsty, flagdraped, machinegun-wielding “patriots” are far from the reality. Americans actually died protesting against the country’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Contrast that with the Rambo character on a mission to save American prisoners of war. Contrast Hollywood with reality. Google Kent State massacre.
A colleague here once asked me a technical question about guns. I don’t think he believed me when I said I had never touched a real gun and had only seen them in holsters of police officers. Come on, all of you Yanks have guns! No, we don’t. I know thousands of
Americans and I don’t know any who own guns. Having said that, obviously there are many Americans who do own guns. They just are not part of the America that I know.
Do not get me wrong. I am not linking someone’s desire to own a gun with them being racist. What I am saying is that America is not a unified place, and I’m not even confident that is simply blue states vs red states. Even within those domains, rivalries are rampant, boisterous and ingrained in the culture. Ask a Bostonian about New York. Ask a Floridian about Alabama. Ask and Oklahoman about Nebraska.
Many of these rivalries may be rooted in sport but they spill over into social expectations and business. Recent talk about the owner of the New England Patriots (Boston) gridiron team potentially purchasing a share of the New York Mets baseball team focused on the Boston fans’ disgust with such disloyalty. How dare he betray them.
Yes, that is ridiculous. Is it hatred? Looks like it. Who do they hate? Their neighbour. Do they know that neighbour? No. So it’s a hatred of something they know little about. Sounds like prejudice.
The same way it sounds like prejudice to think that all Americans are swimming fans or that we all own guns. Assuming I am a swimming fan because I am American is hardly offensive, but what else are you assuming about me? Whatever that is, characterising an individual based on exaggerated and inaccurate stereotypes is the definition of prejudice. Prejudice. Xenophobia. Racism. Sexism. Ageism. These ills are not defined by national borders or cultures. They live inside all of us. It is not their existence but rather how we confront them that matters.