Facing Anti-Americanism

Prior to the incident I'm about to describe, I have only really encountered anti-American sentiment one time in my travels. In most of the places I've been, people ask me where I from, I say "the U.S.," and they respond, "America!!" The first time I was met with a more negative response was in Marrakech, Morocco, last spring, as my American friend and I were sitting on a bench in the medina. A Moroccan man approached us, asked where we were from, and proceeded to inform us that Moroccans, and Muslims in general, do not like Americans because of President Bush, Israel, and the War in Iraq. We tried to explain that lots of Americans are upset about these issues as well, and that we are not representative of the U.S. government, but he seemed uninterested in our defenses. Regardless, he left after a couple minutes. For me, that was encounter number one with anti-Americanism.

The second came a couple weeks ago, as I was eating dinner with my French host mom, Saud (my housemate, a student from Saudi Arabia) and our neighbor, Jackline (a French lady who is probably about 45). Things were going normally, until the conversation began to gradually descend into a rant against America and Americans. It began with Jackline's comment that other countries need to maintain their own identities so the U.S. doesn't take over the whole world and American-ize all the other countries. Saud agreed vehemently, and, while Jackline may have gone a bit too far in saying that the U.S. wants to turn the world into a scene from 1984, I don't want the U.S. to take over the entire world, either. So, while perhaps slightly uncomfortable, that was fine.

Then, she got into how Americans are uninformed about other countries and cultures. While I felt personally attacked, as she motioned to me every time she said something derogatory about "les américains," I do think people in the U.S. should know more about other places, and it is quite clear that Europeans are more informed about the world than Americans are. Jackline conveniently exemplified this with her knowledge of the U.S. and Africa. She also pointed out that Americans know less about American literature than Europeans do - which, frankly, is probably true. While I didn't really disagree with any of these comments, I was rather surprised that she applied this generalization to all "les américains," myself included - when I am the one living in a new country, learning about a new culture, and studying a different language, and particularly when Jackline knows about my interest and experience in Africa. So, my best defense here was, "Ce n'est pas tous les américans qui sont comme ça" (Not all Americans are like that) and "Il y a aussi des français comme ça" (There are French people like that, too). My host mother also pointed this out, though she couldn't really get a word in edgewise, but I was glad somebody was on my side.

Jackline also gave a long explanation about how European schools are better than American schools. "Je suis desolée, mais c'est vrai, vous n'apprenez pas beaucoup dans vos écoles" (I'm sorry, but it's true, you don't learn much in your schools). While I don't have much experience with primary or secondary education here, my understanding is that the French curriculum is more advanced than the standard U.S. curriculum, but not as advanced as honors/Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate classes in the U.S. (the equivalent of which is apparently not very common in France). Also, from what I have read, the school systems in Germany and northern Europe are far more advanced than France's. Further, and I wish I had said this to Jackline but I didn't, European universities, for the most part, are noticeably inferior to those in the U.S. It takes fewer semesters to earn an equivalent degree, there is significantly more vacation time, universities have very few general education requirements, students spend fewer hours in school per week, and they have substantially less work (homework, papers, studying, etc.). In fact, I was recently talking about the French and U.S. education systems with a group of French university students, when one of them said to me, "You have to do a lot of reading at your universities, right? We don't do much reading."

Then, the topic turned to U.S. foreign policy. Jackline, like most French people, oppose the War in Iraq - not surprising. She also made the point that the U.S. government cares about 3,000 people who died on 9/11, but not about the exponentially greater number who have died in Iraq. Again, I was torn between agreeing with her and being irritated by her motions to me when she talked about "les américains."

We then moved from Iraq to foreign aid. Jackline complained that Americans do nothing to help the world and that all we do is exploit poor countries. While I don't completely disagree, I resented the insinuations that the French do so much more for other parts of the world. Both France and the U.S. host large government-run aid programs and tons of NGOs, though much more is needed. I can't say which country actually does more, but I can say that neither country is really doing "enough." Further, I would argue that, over the past 150 years or so, the French government has done at least as much harm in other countries as the U.S. government. French colonization caused huge damage in West and Central Africa, and there is significant evidence that the French government played a role in supporting the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. I wish I had also pointed out to Jackline everything the U.S. did for France during and after World War II - such as the D-Day landings in Normandy and the Marshall Plan, which (though it had other goals as well) included programs to reconstruct Western Europe after the end of the war.

The other interesting factor is that Jackline, my host mother, and her extended family all make a huge, ridiculous fuss about Saud being Muslim. There is frequently irritation with/mocking of his prayers - "Where did Saud go?" "He went upstairs to pray." "What? He went to pray?! hahaha! Oh, my god!" - and the fact that Muslims pray at sundown often prompts questions of "What? Why did he have to go NOW?" There have also been comments about how people from "those countries" should adjust to French cultural norms. I find it interesting that I, the supposedly ignorant American, am the only one who knows anything about Islam or is able to accept someone of a different culture/religion.

Anyway, while I think there is probably more anti-American sentiment in France than in other countries I've visited, Jackline's opinions are hardly the norm here. Regardless, that was my second encounter with anti-Americanism abroad, and I'm sure there will be more to come. I do my best not to reinforce the stereotypes, and I think that Americans living and traveling abroad are already counteracting the belief that we don't care/know about other countries and cultures. As is always the case, though, the existing stereotypes are much stronger than the counter-examples.

On a somewhat related note, there seems to be more anti-Semitism in France than in the U.S. (perhaps I should say, than in some parts of the U.S.). For example, one of the other Rotary students here is Jewish, and, when he told his host family that he'd like to cook some kosher dishes for them during Jewish holidays, they acted very awkward and basically told him they'd prefer if he didn't. Also, when I was watching the news with my host mom the other night, I asked if the lady on TV was French. My host mom responded, "Alors...oui...elle est française, mais elle est juive" (Well...yes...she's French, but she's Jewish).