10 Oct
2012
10 Oct
'12
8:25 p.m.
On 10/10/2012 11:06 PM, Ian King wrote:
In our country, people think that the USA is the center of the world,
the biggest in the world, and the most important in the world. Most
people here think EVERYONE whose skin is a shade darker than ours is
"Mexican", they all speak "Spanish", and they all eat "Mexican
food".
I can probably count on one hand the number of people here who realize
that:
1. Portuguese is the primary language in Brazil
2. Brazil is almost exactly the same size as the USA
3. Brazil has about 2/3 as many citizens as the USA
4. Brazil's currency is NOT the Peso
5. Mexico is a part of North America
It is very embarrassing sometimes. :-( I'm a person who failed nearly
every course in high school, due to disinterest and a crappy system, and
even *I* know these things!
I'm apologize for the way most of us are. We are just clueless, and
we mean no disrespect. (well, most of us don't)
I get really tired of such meaningless generalizations.
I'm currently in a graduate-level anthropology class where I deal with
this all the time: people who use "Western" (as in Western culture, as
distinct from pretty much any indigenous culture) as a swear word, people
who do not identify themselves as "Western" (despite having been born and
raised in the same country as I was) either implicitly assuming or
explicitly claiming that 99.9% of us are dumb as rocks and hateful as
Hitler... and people who DO identify as US citizens buying into and
promulgating this jaundiced self-image.
Yes, there's ignorance, bigotry and xenophobia masquerading as patriotism
in this country. Those things exist elsewhere, it just looks different
elsewhere.
There's also intelligence, understanding and empathy in this country. I
do NOT mean the "white savior industrial complex" that believes all the
brown people of the world are just waiting for "the West" to save them
from, well, something or another. No, there are people who read and
travel and seek to understand the world views of others. Those people
come from other places, too, but they do also come from here.
Dave, please don't color "most of us" as "clueless". This sort
of
self-flagellation feeds a tired stereotype that serves no one. -- Ian
...except that, in the general public outside of academia, it's damn
accurate. I'm sorry if I offended you, in any case. There is a REASON
that many people in other countries have the opinions they do about us.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
QUINZE MIL
FLOPPIES??? Que voces vao fazer com tanto disquete assim?!
C: In englaise sil vous plaint. No sprekenzy deutsche! Nor espanolay.
Pardon, mon signeur...I though it was a personal message :) Esto non
es espa?ol, pero que en Brasil hablamos el portuguese :)