Before I came to Europe, people kept warning me about all of the anti-American sentiment that was prevalent over here. I dismissed these warnings, partially because I didn’t believe them, but also because I tend to be quite pessimistic about the United States myself. I had no idea how offended I could feel when someone criticized my country without having a reason to do so.
Sure, my European friends will tease me and other Americans about our little quirks – spelling everything with a ‘z’ instead of an ’s’ and then calling it “zee” instead of “zed,” for example – but it was all in good fun. I had never had actual insults directed at me or at the US until last week.
In Paris, my friend Stephanie and I were walking through the exhibits at the Centre Pompidou. We were looking at a strange piece which seemed to be two gigantic lungs covered by blankets, breathing in and out. A French guy who worked at the museum approached us and said “Shh, they’re sleeping!” and then proceeded to drag us through a ridiculously long conversation. He asked us where we were from, and didn’t understand when Stephanie kept saying “the United States.” I actually had to tell him in French the name of our country before he understood.
Even though he didn’t recognize the name of our country (the French word for United States literally translates to “united states,” and he apparently spoke at least decent English), he told us all about the lack of sophistication and education that most Americans have. He was saying that some parts of the United States are generally okay, but there are lots of rural areas where everyone is ignorant of the rest of the world and knows nothing about foreign countries (I’m not saying these don’t exist; see my hometown for example). He kept elaborating on this point of view until Stephanie asked him whether or not he’d ever been to the United States. He replied that he had not, but he had watched a French documentary which told him all of these things!
I am usually the first to criticize the US for being a bit backwards, too conservative, unconcerned with foreign affairs, and generally just a misguided country. Still, I was offended. He may not have been totally inaccurate in much of what he was saying, but to approach someone and begin to make broad, demeaning generalizations about their country – which you have never even been to – is deeply offensive. Not to mention hypocritical – here he was telling two Americans who were exploring his country and its culture that Americans know nothing about the rest of the world, when he himself had never traveled to our country!
A similar incident happened again this week in Copenhagen. On Wednesday, I went on a field study with my Muslims in the West class to a Muslim private school. One of the teachers at the school, an ethnic Dane who practices Islam, gave us a really interesting presentation on the school and what does and doesn’t work about it. He was really friendly and gave a really unique perspective, but most of all he was very down to Earth and seemed willing to merge his religious beliefs with the reality of 21st century Denmark. However, he brought us into a classroom of ninth graders (this is generally the highest mandatory grade in school before going to gymnasium, which is comparable to high school) where their teacher, a woman whom he described as being half-Danish and half-Polish, proceeded to tear us apart for being American.
My class lined up in front of the black board so that we were facing all of the students in the room, and this teacher went to the back of the room and said, “So we were all wondering, why did you choose to come to Denmark, of all places?” When some of us explained our various reasons – the opportunities provided by DIS, the opportunity to travel, interest in Scandinavia, etc. – she followed up by saying something like, “I just don’t understand, because most Americans don’t seem to know anything about the rest of the world and you’re all here in another country to learn about it.”
A few people tried to explain that we DO care about learning about the world and that IS why we’re here, and it’s not so easy to say that all Americans are ignorant. One of the DIS interns who accompanied us on our field study explained that we were all students from good universities, so it was more likely that we would come from wealthy backgrounds and therefore would know more about the world. I, along with several other students, challenged her on this. We tried to explain to the class that socioeconomic background had little to do with your ignorance of the world; a rich person could be just as uninformed as a poor person, and not all of us were rich just because we went to good universities. The teacher didn’t seem to accept this though, asking, “So if I go to a poor state like Mississippi, no one will know anything about European countries, but rich states will because you have state control over education?” She explained that Danish education was controlled at the federal level, so because the Danish government wanted students to learn about the rest of the world, all Danish students are inherently more informed than all American students.
She kept repeating over and over, “Well we learn about Barack Obama in our classrooms, but you never learn about Danish politics! It’s not right that we know so much about the rest of the world, and you know so little about it! All you ever study is American history and American politics, but we study that and our own history and politics!”
At this point, I was not only offended but disgusted by the fact that anyone with such a lack of rationality to her reasoning was permitted to be a school teacher in this or any country. I raised my hand to speak and explained a couple of things:
- It is not fair to characterize American education or ignorance by class. I am not wealthy, but I worked hard to get a scholarship so that I could go to a good university. My parents do not have college educations, but they still know who other world leaders are.
- Just because Danes study the United States does not mean that they know “more about the world” than we do. She made no statements regarding Danish knowledge of anything outside of the US and Europe. Americans actually do know quite a bit about Latin America – do Danes?
- In the United States, we DO actually study other countries’ history. Perhaps not everyone had the best teachers, but the subject matter was at the very least a part of our curriculum.
- Danes probably do know about more countries than we do, but most of those countries are in Europe, and many are the size of states in the United States (and most Americans at least know something about most of the states). A Dane could fly for three hours and pass over six countries. An American could fly for seven hours and still be in the United States. It’s easier to know about more countries when they are so much smaller and more geographically accessible.
- Whether or not it should be this way, the fact remains the United States is – at least for now – the world’s only superpower. International organizations hinge on the actions of the United States. Perhaps in a better world this would not be so, but it’s an unavoidable truth. Therefore, of course Danes have to learn about Barack Obama, as he governs a tremendously powerful country. Americans are obviously going to be less likely to study a tiny country like Denmark, because Denmark’s actions don’t have the same kind of impact on the US that the US’s actions have on Denmark.
I made sure to use the prime minister of Denmark’s name (Lars Løkke Rasmussen) so that she would know that I did in fact know about their leader.
I really am critical of Americans’ lack of knowledge about the rest of the world, but even I have my limits. It’s really not right for anyone to approach a national of another country and begin to tell them the faults of their culture. How can we ever foster cross-cultural understanding if everyone’s beliefs are based on misrepresentative documentaries, socioeconomic stereotypes and offensive generalizations?


