Stereotypes ~Event~

         One of my friends told her mother she was making friends with international students. Her mother told her “Be careful. All they want is a green card.” Other than being truly insulting to her daughter, to assume there was nothing she had to offer but a green card, the mother was wrong. When my friend told her mother, “They don’t want green cards. They want to go back to their countries,” her mother asked “What is wrong with them? Why don’t they want to stay?” This conversation captures the attitudes of Americans toward international people. They assume that everyone wants to come to America and anyone who does not want the American freedom and democracy must have something wrong with them. The Chico State Education Week had a lecture on April 28 was about stereotypes international people have of Americans. The stereotypes of others were discussed as well. 

      Americans are seen for the most part as being so involved in themselves and their own lives that they do not know much about the outside world. For example, a lot of Americans are very interested in this election, but usually Americans know less about their elections and campaign issues than people outside the country. That is because people outside of the country are impacted more than the Americans by who is elected. The U.S. has so much influence in the world about who will get development loans from the World Bank and IMF, for example. On the panel at the lecture they talked about how Americans did not pay attention to things that go on outside the United States. They asked who the president of Mexico is and no Americans volunteered the answer. The lack of knowledge of international people and events was made very clear at the same time, Americans would be very angry I believe, if they knew what was going on outside the United States in their names. Americans would be very angry about U.S. foreign policy if they knew it. 

      When you compare what was said at the multicultural event with what is on the Internet you can see that a great many Americans are finding out what is going on around the world with U.S. foreign policy and they are angry. It is interesting to see how people comment on news articles. Some people are still trying to justify U.S. foreign policy but most people are very opposed to what congress and the president is doing. They believe they only served the interests of the few. How does this apply to the stereotypes of Americans? Stereotypes only define a few individuals who fit the description. While it is true there were few students who knew the answers to the international questions, it should be remembered that these are young people who are away from home for the first time and they are mostly interested in having fun. How can we say they are wrong to try to have fun? Do we want them to wait until they are in positions of power and parents? No. Just because a student is at university does not mean that they are taking everything seriously. Furthermore, even the international relations programs asks the students to take a single area on which to focus because it would take a life time to know everything about everything. The stereotypes about everyone are wrong. Students, international students, and Americans. 

      Yes, Americans like to eat fast food, they like to live large and have fun. At the same time, they care about the world. They are pressuring their government to take stronger action on the environment. The government loosened the environmental regulations, but the consumers are sending a clear message to the corporations that they want socially responsible corporations. They also want socially responsible government. Most Americans are only ignorant because they do not know they don’t know about the world. with all their media and communication, how could they assume information was being withheld from them? When they find out, most of them become actively involved in one or more social causes, from having animals spayed and neutered to raising money for orphans in Brazil. The stereotypes of Americans that was presented at the event are more negative than positive and to me this is not fair. I am an international student that wants to go home. Not because I don’t love America and Americans, but because I love my family and my culture too. The event said that Americans tend to think people are for them or against them (Zero-sum game), but in my experience, it is only those Americans who are ignorant that believe in zero-sum game, and these Americans are becoming fewer and fewer. 

      Finally, the event was good because it started a dialogue and it brought a lot of the people who do not have a clue with those who do have a clue together. It was designed to get students interested in going abroad for school, and facing stereotyping. I think they were able to make some progress in that short time. Some of the students seemed so surprised by what was said. They were on the edge of stepping into a much larger world, one that lives outside of the United States.