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Breaking the American stereotype

March 14, 2008

By: Meher Ahmad <mahmad@hilite.org>

I recently watched a video on YouTube.com in which a man asked several teenagers on the street who the president of France was. Although the video was surely edited, every person interviewed had no idea who the current president of France is.

While I recognize that this video was not an accurate representation of our school, I started thinking about how many students here are aware of global events. It suddenly dawned on me that many teenagers have no interest in global affairs whatsoever.

It is understandable that everyone in Carmel does not know about what happens outside of America’s borders, but what I find unsettling is not many care. As teenagers, we tend to get wrapped up in our own world, what with sports and clubs and homework. This is no excuse, however, for limiting our scope to only what affects us.

Having traveled to a good number of countries, the constant exposure to new cultures fuels my interest in foreign affairs, whether or not they involve the United States. Seeing exactly what poverty is, what a factory in China looks like, how Parisians live, it keeps me thinking about what happens in the rest of the world

Even if students have not traveled, I feel it is necessary for our generation to care about what happens outside of American borders. We always hear about outsourcing and how jobs are quickly leaving the US economy, but few really take time to understand what that means for us, the next working generation.
The global stage is not limited to Western countries anymore. According to Steve Schifferes, an economics reporter for BBC News, emerging countries such as India and China are widening the job pool for corporations. “India is the world’s leading exporter of IT services, with its volume of offshore business doubling every three years,” Schifferes said. The speed at which these countries are going is not going to slow anytime soon, either. By the time our generation is out of college and ready for the working world, the competition we will face for jobs will be unprecedented.

In addition to competing for jobs, the reputation Americans have in foreign countries is definitely not highly regarded. We are seen as ignorant, greedy people who are narrow-minded and obnoxious. Every time I heard this description from foreigners I always fought to prove them wrong, but after living in Hong Kong for a full year, I find it hard to defend Americans entirely.

I often have people ask me where I lived in the previous year, and when I say Hong Kong, I’m shocked by the responses I get. “Oh, that’s in Japan right?” is the one I most commonly receive. After about the fifth time I heard this I began thinking like the other foreigners. I really did start to believe most Americans are ignorant and narrow-minded.

This is my eighth month living back in the United States, and I’ve come to accept that thus far, many Americans do live up to their stereotype. But I still have hope for my peers. Maybe with increasing inter-connectivity, teenagers will become interested in what the rest of the world has to offer. For the time being, I’m still explaining that Hong Kong is not in Japan.

Updated by ychoi · Filed Under Acumen 

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