Americans Abroad

Anytime someone is traveling, they should be gaining new insight into their own lives, personalities, and habits. One of the biggest things to reflect on is what you look like to the people around you. More specifically: where you come from. For me, it has always been interesting to talk to foreigners in the United States and people from the countries that I am visiting to see what their perspective is on the United States and Americans. A lot of times, they love Americans and (sadly) American pop culture, but dislike the government. This brings to question though, what is an “American”? Often, Americans are even more overgeneralized than we can even imagine. If you asked someone here in Amman, chances are all Americans are white, Christian, rich, and democracy-loving people. This does not differ much from many conversations I’ve had with people from across the world. Let’s take a moment and look at this: White: As of the 2010 U.S. Census, there are 223.6 million “whites”. This group accounts for 72% of the population, but includes Eastern and Western European groups, Persian, and even the Arab populations. People of African descent account for 13% (38.9 million). Nearly 3 million American Indian and Alaskan Natives, and another half a million Hawaiian Natives are present. The Hispanic population accounts for 16% (50.5 million) of the US total. Christian: In the United States, 78.4% of people identify as Christian. Fifty-one percent of Americans are Protestant, and 23.9% identify as Catholic. Jews account for 1.7% of the population, Buddhists 0.7%, Muslims 0.6%, and Hindu 0.4%. There are representatives from Baha’i, Sikhism, New Age religions, and Native American religions/traditions as well. There is also the 16.1% who is unaffiliated or unreligious. Rich: In 2010, 15.1% of Americans lived in poverty. Thirty-six percent of Americans living in poverty are children. This means that 16.4 million children are living in poverty, in the United States. Some people living in poverty manage to keep a roof over their head, but cannot put food on the table. Some are homeless. Many are not able to afford cars, and must therefore rely on public transportation in attempts to maintain a job. Democracy: People hate war. People support wars. People pay taxes. People evade taxes. People love the president. People want the president dead. Some people vote, most people don’t. Some people know the government system, some people can’t even name the three main branches. There is a broad spectrum of political opinions, knowledge, and activity in the United States. People don’t realize that. How do we teach people about this? Well, do we really need to be teaching anybody anything? The United States has problems, just like everywhere else. Just because we succeed in some areas does not mean that we should dominate all. Every area has their own culture, traditions, problems, and solutions. Perhaps they can teach us something, if the United States ever grows out of our teenage years where we just have the answer to everything. What we need to do is get more representative diversity on the television and in films that are viewed worldwide, and continue to try and level the playing field in education and wealth a little more each generation (clarification: incrementally, not proposing a switch to a full-blown socialist system. This really isn’t a “political” post). We can learn so much from other cultures, instead of always impressing ours upon them. So who is an American? You tell me. Sources: www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/2010_census/cb11-cn125.html religions.pewforum.org/reports www.npc.umich.edu/poverty