An article on the BBC website today tells the story of a US citizen living in London and the anti-American sentiments from others she has to deal with on an almost daily basis.
Christian Cox, 29, says she is shocked at the amount of abuse she receives because of her nationality and has been called, among other things, “terrorist”, “scum”, and a “low life”.
Ms Cox keeps her voice low in public places in order to avoid having her American accent heard. In the BBC article the former model who moved to London a year ago said she feels worn down at constantly being held to account for the actions of President Bush and for US foreign policy. What makes the situation worse for her is that like many Americans living overseas Ms Cox doesn’t actually agree with many of the Presidents foreign policies.
Cox claimed that British people are far more outspoken in their anti-American views than other countries she has travelled in. “It’s as if they had been waiting to run into an American all day to let their feelings out.”
Francesca Terry, 28, a fellow American who spent four years in London, took to telling people she was from Canada after she was subjected to verbal abuse in the first year or so in Britain.
Sadly Cox and Terry are merely doing what many others around the world have had to deal with for a long time. Michael Koch, a German living in England, has been “rudely reminded” of the Nazi regime more times than he cares to remember. French people in America wrote about feeling of ‘unease’ after Washington DC made some pretty idiotic anti-French moves that included the renaming of french fries to ‘freedom fries’.
Since 9/11 and the start of America’s ‘long war’, Muslims across the world are now struggling against being seen as terrorists or potential terrorists, a situation that is not helped by the growing number of films and TV shows like ’24’, and ‘Sleeper Cell’ that portray Muslims as ‘the enemy’.
I would agree with Ms Cox’s observations that there is now a real sense of annoyance at what is perceived to be ‘American political swagger’ which sadly anyone with the slightest hint of an American accent may experience from time to time. America’s stance particularly on war and the environment looks far different when viewed on foreign soil, perhaps if more American were able to spend prolonged periods in places like Europe and Asia then those policies that seem most abhorrent to outsiders wouldn’t actually be policies at all?
However, as much anti-American feeling as there may be in the world, the incident of hatred Ms Cox speaks about shouldn’t be blown out of proportion. She lives in one of the most populated cities on the planet and encounters thousands of people each day the majority of whom are happy to live and let live.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 14, 2006 at 5:04 am
Well how about that! Prejudice…I thought it had completely gone away.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 14, 2006 at 9:00 am
i was in colorado and the guys at the ski shop started harassing me about president bush when they saw (on my insurance form) that i was from texas.i just smiled and said that the president was not from texas, that i didn’t vote for him, and i helped campaign against him. anybody that is going to judge me based on where i’m from is only going to receive my pity. ignorence is everywhere, sadly.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 14, 2006 at 10:46 am
The funny thing about the anti-American thing is that I often come in for some stick myself for being a person who loves America as I do. (That’s why I find it funny when people on Xanga sometimes call me ‘anti-American’.)
For example, when people ask me what I am going to America for and I tell them, the response I often hear is “What do you want to help them for.” Something that if I didn’t know better I might find very insulting. Usually the conversation quickly reveals that the person has every sympathy for the people affected by Katrina (and Rita), but that they are appalled that the United States is still willing to spend 177 million dollars a day on a war of questionable nature.
The Katrina discussions reveal to me that it isn’t so much the American people that people here dislike, but the fact that President Bush can leave them in such a mess, lie about what he knew relating to Katrina as well as all the other things he has done.I
find it deeply saddening too see the damage Bush has done with regard to American international relations. If I were asked to characterize America I would say that they are like the unsociable neighbor in an apartment block, playing loud music whenever the hell they like and to hell with everyone else. But the people of the United States, thats a different matter entirely.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 14, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Sure, go ahead and send it in to them, what harm could it do. As for my story, well let me see. I was born in the 70’s, the son of a Publisher and a former police woman. I lived in a well to do neighborhood but did my best to bring it down as much as possible. My brother once said “The Police only ever come here to see you Simon!”
I grew up, became a cop myself for a while, was rubbish at that so I became an ambulance medic for a while. Loved that but they went and “restructured” me out of my darn job! So I took off with some inheritance and traveled across America from West to East and back again. Greyhounding my way in and out of enough adventures to write a book about!
You know, that was supposed to be a potted history, but heck, that only brings us up to 1992! So you’ll just have to dig around my sites and see what you can come up with. Either that or ask my stalker, she knows loads! :-D
Wrote the following comment on Apr 14, 2006 at 7:21 am
It would be great if prejudice could be replaced with mutual respect. I have traveled outside the United States quite a bit, and I have met some wonderful people, I was respectful of their culture wherever I traveled…I did not want to be disrespectful in any way, so I read up on the area before going. I was not threatening, people loved me – women in Taipei Taiwan followed me around, they thought I was beautiful! (so funny) They loved my red hair…I should have stayed there! When I traveled out of the country, it was so imbarrasing to run across all the rude, disrespectful Americans “looking down” on the people and their culture they were visiting.
Wrote the following comment on Apr 14, 2006 at 8:15 am
WE americans , Unfortunately have a tendency to thumb our nose at the world in genereal, yet we will still be some of the most generous people in the world, when it comes to crunch time……..hmmm……anyway, I enjoy your posts……and good luck in Waveland…….good to see people who haven’t forgotten about the difficulties down there…..
Wrote the following comment on Apr 14, 2006 at 12:27 pm
Hello there, I see you are interested (via your link) in NRDC. I received my petition a few weeks ago and someone in the household misplaced it. I just found it today. Do you think it’s too late to send in? Just curious. I feel safe and confident in asking you since you seem to know a hell of a lot more than 80% of the people living here in Chattanooga! And again, I want to thank you for your encouragment. I’d be quite interested in knowing your story…so I want to dig back into your earlier entries. ~jess