As I came up the Lexington ramp from 94E this evening, I glimpsed something moving into the road and braked slightly. It was a tumbleweed. It did not pause, but kept rolling south.
I spent part of my evening discussing cultural hegemony with a Spanish ex-patriate living in the TC. (I'm going to start using the initials in the same way the kids do for "The O.C."-- i.e. "I brake for tumbleweeds ... that's how we roll in the TC.") He allowed that Europeans are just as racist and reactionary as Americans and was generously dismissive about that whole "freedom fries" thing. Europeans act the same way, he said.
I choose to be comforted by our sameness; we are all dumb-asses together.
5 comments:
Yeah, I think Europe backed way the hell off when France had its race riots. It pretty much exploded the criticism of the US' historical difficulty with diversity while being an immigrant nation.
Of course, as there was a joblessness complaint in those race riots, I did, quite insensitively, put up a blog post questioning whether rioters would really make good employees. From a managerial perspective...
-cK
Yeah, the holier-than-thou Europeans should probably shut the hell up. But the freedom fries thing -- so embarrassing. Also: creationists fighting to get evolution out of the schools. And, you know, the president.
i'm so glad you brought up the 'freedom fries' angle. it reminds me of krista scholten's take on the whole thing... as you know there is that slyly bigoted phrase 'pardon my french'. well, whenever krista would swear during that 'freedom fries' era, she would say 'pardon my freedom!'
Los Estados Unidos certainly has no monopoly on small-minded assholes. I always think of a cab driver I had in Amsterdam who went on and on about the nasty immigrants in a (for me) shockingly Nazi-like manner. It was a stark contrast with the Amsterdam I love, which is a wonderful liberal European melting-pot.
And speaking of Nazis, I don't think they exactly originated in the US.
Just thumbing through old posts and I had to comment on this one.
We definitely don't hold any records on small-mindedness or "fear of the other." I just moved to the TC from Europe, and I cannot tell you how many jaw-dropping conversations I had with not-so-sensitive Eruopeans. Our neighbors in the Hague spent 1/2 hour talking to us about how all the expats (like us) were stealing all the good jobs from the Dutch -- in our expat apartment while happily eating our food and imbibing in our proferred adult beverages. I felt like a Mexican immigrant in Texas. So, cheers to your Spanish friend for admitting that Americans aren't the only assholes on this planet!
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