Just about the only real encounter with anti-Americanism I’ve had was on the Tokyo subway in 2003, when an older man yelled a lot and banged on the windows behind my head. The other passengers were visibly embarrassed and everyone else I met in Japan was exceedingly kind.
Ironically, in Mexico in 2004, I was the one who was extremely embarrassed by other Americans acting like total louts in the airport. Just about everyone I met in Mexico was great, and the most noticeable thoughts about America I heard were from one guy who was very envious of the idea of Social Security.
We wandered around Venice for hours and hours, taking in the sites and looking for the hostel. Around midnight we finally found it.
Hostelier: Are you Americans?
Us: Yes.
Hostelier: I don’t want any more Americans in my hostel! They’re crazy! The have little children who run around all the time! They make love all night! They howl at night! Awooooo! Awooooo! All night, making love! If an atom bomb dropped on America, it would be a good thing!
Once you have lived for sometime anywhere… you will have your local friends and acquaintances… you will also gradually act more like the locals without thinking about it and you should blend in much more.
I wouldn't be concerned about future fuckups in Washington messing stuff up for you... those around you will think of you not as an american but just as you.
1986, in Montreal, a lady standing in front of us in line made an anti-american remark. My wife to be & I just looked at each other chuckled & thought she was a jerk. That was the only negtive remark we heard all week.
This past November we were in Ireland for a week & talked with many people & never heard a negative remark. One of the highlights of the week for my 15 year old son & myself was sitting in a bar in Cork City with my older brother watching a Premiereship game & having groups of the local patrons asking us about American Football when they found out we were Americans. They were thrilled we knew about the English Premiership (son is a soccer player) & we were thrilled they were interested in American Football (They all wanted my New England Patriots hat)
I am so jealous. I only spend a week in Rome and another in Florence, but I consider my time in the States to be a (hopefully temporary) exile. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate America at all. In fact, my cynicism hasn’t yet reached the point that I no longer love it.
But man, I do I love Rome. And while I was there, the Romans were all very, very nice to me. I never had a single problem or heard a single negative comment. Of course, they could have been taunting me behing my back in Italy, but what do I care? When I approached them, they were very nice.
I can tell you where this comes from, because all outsiders experience this in some form since we’re not Americans and the US is the strongest nation right now (I’m betting the Romans got the same shit from the Gauls, or Carthaginians or whatever 2000 years ago).
I worked in a hotel for 4 years here, and met many, many tourists and business travels from all over. Most were Canadians or Americans, followed by Europeans and Japanese. I can say that unequivocally, and with no malice or ill-intent, that if any group was, Americans were the most difficult people to please.
There just always seemed to be a sense of entitlement, an arrogance that was present among a subset of the American visitors. Generally it was the tourists, rather than the business travellers (who usually preferred to be left alone, like everyone else travelling on business). They were always more demanding, more expectant, more rude (noticeably so), and more difficult and thoughtless. I say this not as an indictment of all Americans, just as a snapshot of the hotel guests we received (Westin Hotel). Dutch tourist were also rude too, but fewer and less noticeable. Japanese, British and German tourists were all very polite, especially Japanese people (a joy to work with). The worst part of it all, though, was the European need for men to wear Speedos in the pool (I worked in the health club). Just icky.
Personally, I never really bought the notion of all Americans being jerks that many internationally believe, even after working in the hotel. What I think it is really born out of is a combination of factors:
The US is the biggest most powerful nation around, so there’s some envy/resentment for their throwing their weight around
Americans are in general less well-versed in other cultures than other cultures are versed in American culture
Americans have money and worship money and fling money around like a tool. Plenty of others do this too, but it is something which was very common among American tourists, thinking they could buy anything with the right dollar amount
For the most part, though, I think it’s really just a very small subset of people who are truly anti-American. The rest are just wary of the US’s influence and tired of seeing Friends on TV all the damn time.
I should add that by far (and I mean FAR) the worst guest we had were the Liberal and Progressive Conservative party conventions (back when there was a PC party). These bastards were the most wretched excuses for humanity I have ever encountered and thoroughly and soured me on politics in this country, probably for ever. And they were all Canadians. Wretched, wretched bastards.
My roommate had some problems in Korea, with people refusing service, but I think that’s because he was muscular and had a crewcut; people thought he was a Marine, and there had been some recent scandals.
Other than that, 100% of the anti-american attitudes I detected were from Europeans.
I had one long talk with a man about how great he thought America was, evidenced by it’s willingness to fight in Vietnam.
I had a Brit point out a couple of obnoxious Texans to me and comment about how the “those fucking bloody Yanks” are always so loud. I said “yes, some of us are” and savored the look of shock on his face as he realized I wasn’t Canadian.
I did have a few conversations with people unhappy with specific US policies, but I usually acknowledged that they often had a point and calmly explained how people/politicians in the US might see things differently. I usually tried to keep my personal opinions out of it, even if it wouyld have made things easier. *Personal opinion *: I would have felt somewhat disloyal to try to escape any association with my nation by distancing myself from the then-current-administration, even though I didn’t vote for it. I had more than a few conversations in where I found myself defending Clinton.
I had innumerable talks with people with ignorant misconceptions – “You mean you’ve never really seen a gunfight?”
I also had innumerable chats with people who were clearly fascinated and entranced by a place they know from TV and movies and history books that bears a strong, though by no means completely accurate resemblance to my home.
Here in Australia, everyone’s extremely nice to me to my face, but I find the negative references to the US in the media almost bizarre. It really sometimes seems like 5 minutes before airtime, an editor said, “Oh, you forgot your American put-down…add one here and here and here.”
On the other hand, you see New York Yankee hats everywhere and I’ve seen a ton of Russell Athletic sweatshirts with American flags on them. Television is dominated by American shows and American news stories are well-covered. Everyone I’ve met who picks up my accent (and they all “compliment” me on how I don’t have much of an accent) is extremely nice and always says they’ve been to the US or they’d like to go or they have a friend who just got back. One woman I know had me show her all the pictures I had of “American houses” because she’s building a house and loves the houses she’s seen on tv.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the references to the US you hear in the media are along the lines of they may not be talking about you nicely, but they are still talking about you. I try to take it as a compliment that we’re thought about at all. shrug
The closest I’ve ever come to an anti-American incident was when I was visiting London in 2000. I took a tour of the Tower Bridge, and at the end of it, a docent with a clipboard was asking everyone where they were from. I said, “San Francisco,” and she said “Oooo…” all sarcastic-like. But I don’t think it was anti-Americanism so much as bridge-envy.
You’re absolutely right. And I very much feel that America and Americans are the exception in their general unwillingness to look upon themselves with self-deprecatory ambivalence.
And I do agree with owlstretchingtime, that there’s a hefty proportion of Yank tourists who stick out like sore thumbs. I just don’t understand the inability to lower the volume of their voices to that of their surroundings…
One problem is, of course, that while there are definitely many Americans who talk too loud (for example), there are also many who are wonderfully kind, respectful and soft-spoken. But due to preconceived ideas, these latter types are assumed to be some nationality other than American. People don’t know when they’ve made a mistake.
A few years ago my daughter and I were in Paris and visited Notre Dame cathedral. We were shocked at the people we saw talking loudly, chewing gum and generally being disrespectful of the fact that it is a church, darnit, and people were trying to worship there. We were surprised that the people misbehaving were also French. At least that’s what they were speaking. Ditto the people running their hands over the marble sculptures in the museum. I bet anybody looking at my slim, stylishly dressed, soft-speaking daughter just assumed she was European, not American.
Tourists, as a group (whether elderly people in pastel pantsuits or stinky white hippy kids with dreadlocks) are not usually the best ambassadors or representatives of the countries they hail from. As an American, I usually depend on Australian and German tourists to make me look good by comparison.
