UK Anti-Americanism "feels like racism" says possibly over-reacting former model

"The US embassy in London declined to comment on the story."

vs.

Report: U.S. Foreign Policy Hurting American Students' Chances Of Getting Laid Abroad: "I offer to buy them a drink, and they tell me I shouldn't just stand by and watch Bush destroy the world. Look, if I had that type of pull with the president, I obviously wouldn't be out trolling for anonymous Dutch pussy."

&

Some friends now advise her to tell people she is Canadian, to deflect potential abuse, an option she calls "sad".

vs.

"First, pretend you're Canadian whenever you can," Hapbrook said. "But make sure you're not around actual Canadians, because they'll know you're lying and cock-block you. Second, if there are any anti-American protests going on, take care to avoid women carrying signs. Third, focus your itinerary on countries like Ireland and Japan that are still relatively friendly to Americans."

And overhere?

Key sentence in this article: she has a close group of girlfriends from the US, many of whom say they have not had similar experiences. Exactly. This article is the kind of piss-poor "journalism" I expect from U.S. regional newspapers, Fox News, or Nick Sylvester.

(Although if she's still defending Bush, she deserves what she gets.)

The idea of of having "pride" of your nationality is so entirely alien to me. Every so often there is someone on morning tv who says that English people are too ashamed to be English, and that we should all start celebrating St. George's day, and the thought repulses me rather.

Why Americans are so big on sides-taking is a whole other issue, I guess.

eh. everybody's pretty big on sides-taking, I think; some people have just developed more sophisticated characterizations of their side, so that it seems less about where they're from and more abut an ethos or a set of principles or whatever. the elision of geographical identity and beliefs is a classic move in these encounters.

I find that comment to be very weird because Brits(the English atleast) really take pride in themselves and their country in annoying ways too. As a Swede living in London I'm kinda put off by it. Majorly.

because everybody does this! people who claim cosmopolitan-ness do it too!

BECAUSE WE MURDER PEOPLE OVER "FOOTBALL"????

Very different but I'm seriously not kidding when I say I can understand how it "feels" that way, especially for people who have never encountered racism. It's the experience -- something American white people hardly ever have -- of knowing that you're being singled out for approbation based on a group/culture you belong to and identify with by birth. There's a common thread there to a lot of experiences, plenty of which I've had: having people disparage a race you belong to, having people disparage a nation you belong to, even having people disparage a regional identity you have. And it's almost even more hurtful if they identify you and pull you out as an exception.

obviously not the same as race, but the same mechanism of overlaying identity over which people have no control with meanings attached to belief and behavior is at work.

right, but that's the defensive side of this exchange. where, to use the American model example, Midwest=America and New York=England.

I think I've actually said what amounts to "you're talking about my mom, asshole!" on ILX in that Danish Muhammad thread.

OTM OTM OTM OTM OTM OTM. I remember a friend of mine in college almost having a nervous breakdown in the UK because he was getting treated like dirt by virtually everyone we encountered; seriously, every shitty person we encountered zeroed in on HIM and made his life a living hell (although in the interest of full disclosure he didn't help matters by doing some stupid "ugly American" things that precipitated some of these encounters).

By contrast, another trip I took with college friends in Japan really opened the eyes of two friends of mine on the race axis; both are blonde-haired and blue-eyed and neither was particularly prejudiced, but at least one was deeply, utterly racially naive and didn't get certain stories of mine until we went somewhere where people looked at him like HE was the odd, out-of-place one to whom special attention should be paid. They felt all claustrophobic and under a microscope while I couldn't really tell much of a difference between the attention paid to me walking down a random US street and walking down a random Japanese street.

p.s. this sentence originally contained three superfluous "like"'s that I omitted upon realizing how damn american it seemed.

In other words, I don't think "it" is the people.

Yeah, when I lived in Japan I definitely became hyper-aware of the constant staring, and the way everyone around me reacted to my presence, either positively or negatively. Most of the attention was positive (if really weird) but there were occasional incidents where no one would sit next to me on crowded trains, or groups of high schoolers would point and stare, or parents pulled their children back from me. Also being solicited as a prostitute fairly often (though I think that was because people seemed to think I was Russian). While being singled out for my race it was sometimes disconcerting and upsetting, it was pretty educational. I'd never experienced anything like it before.

Then there's this thing where my father's wife is constantly trashing my hometown in Ohio -- where my mother, sister, grandmother, niece and nephews, and most other relatives all still live -- for being white trash Midwest etc., etc. (she's from Hawaii of French descent), and it's like, "Uh, excuse me, but I'm like FROM there. It's where I still ultimately consider 'home.' Could you maybe put a sock in it?"

XP: PHEW.

I'm talking more if, like, someone in New York said to you, Laurel, that he hated all those midwestern Christians and they all should be shot, and you said "well, that's a big part of where I'm from," and he said "yeah, but you're not LIKE THAT," or "you're not ONE OF THEM" -- even if you really aren't, it's horrifying. Like someone hands you a gun: "Just shoot your parents and we'll pretend you're one of us."

(xpost Yeah Laurel that's totally cool by me! And non-surprising, America doesn't invest words in like differentiating between post-slavery black and African-immigrant black, and what with slavery its idea of black is totally west-African and etc -- it makes sense.)

Has this changed -if it existed- under Obama

Ugh punching up anyway

Experienced this at work the other day, very nice guy who basically thinks the US is a fascist state - "they don't have the same freedoms we have over here in Europe" (he actually said this!) - capable of just about any evil you can imagine. Not helped by the fact that we were working with was a left wing Spanish guy, so anti-American almost by definition though in a more measured, thoughtful way. Anyway, over the course of a few hours, I managed to reason with him and get him to explain and, in some cases, moderate his more outlandish opinions. I still feel like the next time I work with guy I should wear one of lapel badges with the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes entwined.
― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Monday, 28 September 2015 18:41 (1 month ago) BookmarkFlag Post Permalink

If Anti-Americanism here/anywhere intensified over US Gov 10-15 years ago it's focus now (again?) is probably spread thinner over (often racist) gun violence, hard right media influence and corporate greed-negligence.

corporate greed-negligence

I thought the UK led the world in this tbh.

typical UK triumphalism

If only we had a precise English word for the irrational or stereotyped fear or hatred of foreigners! If only that word existed!

But I guess "xenophobia" has 5 syllables and "racism" only 2, so we can't expect Americans to understand or use it. ;-)

There's something very Guardian BTL about being anti-American in the UK in 2015