When I arrived to see what would become my apartment in Shanghai, one of my future roommates asked me where I was from. "I'm from the United States," I said, and then went on to tell her that I grew up in New York City. She did a double take, and thanked me for leading with my country, rather than just saying I was from Wisconsin or Michigan or something specific like that. Apparently, she told me, Americans have a tendency to assume that people from all over the world know where Grand Rapids, Michigan is the same way people from Detroit know where Grand Rapids is. She likened this tendency to the luck of beffudlement she would get if she introduced herself as being from Valparaiso (the small seaside city on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Chile...NOT the town in Indiana after which Valpo University). When she tells people that she is from Chile, she has had Americans look at her and say, "Oh! You mean in Africa?"
Clearly, she has a point. Americans tend to be incredibly US-centric, and assume, simply because the majority of their lives have been spent within the boundaries of the fifty states, that everyone in the world is as familiar with US geography as we are. The notion that the world revolves around the United States undoubtedly contributes to the palpable anti-American sentiment that exists around the world. I had assumed that sentiment was focused primarily in pockets of Europe, but it exists here in China too. Not so much amongst the Chinese -- they seem to like me just fine thank you very much, particularly when I tell them I'm related to Kobe Bryant -- but amongst fellow foreigners from around the world. It's possible that Americans naturally give off a vibe of entitlement that raises the ire of other expatriates. It's possible that Americans assume that there are two types of people in China -- Chinese, and American expatriates -- and that assumption alienates the rest of the world who also have ambassadors here. And it's also possible that it's just trendy and socially acceptable amongst the global community to have a chip on one's shoulder when it comes to Americans.
Flash forward to last night. I met my Chilean roommate and her Danish friend for drinks at a Western-style bar near our apartment. We had a great time that extended later and involved considerably more drinking that anyone expected. The conversation was almost exclusively light and fun - a perfect way to spend a Wednesday evening in Shanghai. At one point, however, I used the word "American." I can't remember whether I used it self-referentially or to describe Americans in general. My Chilean cohabitant did another one of those double-takes, and said, "I hate it when people from the United States describe themselves as American. I'm American too."
I guess I get it. She's from South America, so therefore considers herself American as well. And while I admit that I never assumed Canadians, Mexicans, Peruvians or Chileans would also consider themselves American, I don't for a single second think ought to preclude people from the United States of America from calling themselves American. Her point, as I understood it, was to suggest that by referring to ourselves as American we are thereby appropriating the entire landmass of North and South America to ourselves. I told her that I didn't think this was true at all; people from the United States, just like people from every other country in the world, have a demonym that we use to describe them. The fact that I call myself an American is a linguistic issue, not a political one. If the founding fathers had decided to name our country Washingtonia, we would call ourselves Washingtonian. People from Poland are Poles, people from Paris are Parisians and people from the US are....American!
The purpose of this story isn't one of frustration with my roommate. I like her, and think I'll enjoy living with her. And her point led to a very interesting discussion. I just think that while some of this global anti-American sentiment is warranted, some of it is driven by an ill-conceived notion that Americans are inherently misguided. In other words, I think that the reason Americans get a bad name around the world is probably due to the fact that Americans deserve that bad name more often than, perhaps, Chileans do. But "American" itself is not a bad name. The idea that we call ourselves American to somehow claim all of the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is preposterous. If I'm not supposed to say that I'm from New York, or Wisconsin, or Omaha, because that's assuming that the entire world knows where those places are, and I'm also not supposed to call myself American, but that's just classic American greed...that what can I call myself?
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