I frequently check the news on the Francinfo website,
partly to practice French, but partly to hear about European and world news
that frequently gets overlooked by American news outlets, even by NPR.
Recently, I have begun to realize that it is a good place to discover what
Europeans think about America.
And the French news about America is nearly all bad. One
day recently, the top headline was
about the racist video posted by frat boys at the University of Oklahoma.
American news outlets that I saw did not indicate what
the offensive lyrics of the chant were; the French news did. This event was so
spectacularly offensive that the response that the University of Oklahoma made
to the problem—essentially terminating the fraternity—kind of got lost. The
image that is left is of a stupidly racist Oklahoma. (I say stupidly because
the offensive lyrics were not exactly Shakespearean in their quality.)
And then there is Missouri. The French news has carried
numerous items about Ferguson, and how the American federal government has
identified pervasive elements of racism in the operation of that municipality.
Here is one example.
All of this came within a few days of the historic
commemoration of the Selma March. Franceinfo ran an article in their
Expliquez-nous (explain to us) series about these historic events. Anyone reading the French news, and seeing these
items in close proximity, can be excused for thinking that America was and
remains a hotbed of racism.
Even if it is not true. In my experience, the vast
majority of Americans are not racist. The college students I see every day—in
rural Oklahoma—have interracial friendships, and it comes naturally: they are
not making a point by it. But the slow work of building up goodwill is easily
overpowered by the highly visible evil of a few people. In my own
field—teaching biology, especially ecology and evolution—I find that the vast
majority of students either accept some form of evolution and global warming,
or else do not get vocal in their opposition. But a few vocal evolution and
climate denialists create the impression that the whole country has of Oklahoma
and the whole world has of the USA. You can say all you want to that this image
is unfair, but there it is. I almost feel that I have to apologize to the
people of the world for things that I do not do and which, in some cases, are
done to me (e.g. the occasional creationist attacks). A Facebook friend posted
that a friend of his who frequently visits Europe has repeatedly encountered
the European view that Americans “are a bunch of gun toting,
ultra-conservative, and self-centered bigots. Not to mention just plain nasty
people.” This image, too, is created by a relatively small number of loud
tourists who think that everybody should accommodate their every whim and for
God’s sake speak English. I fear that the French visitors I have met may think
that I and my family are among the relatively rare Americans who are nice.
This is a big problem. Terrorists recruit a lot of people
who are convinced that most Americans are evil people who are perfectly happy
to kill a hundred civilians to get one militant and who are perfectly happy to
keep the vast majority of people in the world poor so that we can have cheap
materials to import. They think that we think that we can create goodwill in
the world by bombs and drones. No amount of military power—and we already have
more military expenditure than all other major countries combined—can keep us
safe if the world hates us. I think that Barack Obama has created a lot of
goodwill (despite Congress telling the world that they are unwilling to support
any of that goodwill, and asking the world to disregard anything Obama may say
that is not militaristic), though even his overseas friends sort of look
uneasily over his shoulder to see if there is a drone hovering there.
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