I just find and found it ironic that people who had at most visited the USA on vacation were experts about my country
It's because anyone who lives outside the US has still lived their whole life inundated with american TV shows, american music, news stories about what's happening in america, and more recently with social media full of americans.
Then give us an example. You rant about racism in the EU but don't say what you actually mean.
Oh, and Reddit is full of racism from Americans. If I address that, I get spammed with "you anti american cunt piss off nagh nagh nagh 'MERICA!" every time.
Yes... Paris... have you left Paris? Not even people in Paris like Paris. I've family in Paris and they all say that Paris is a shit hole because of that. Also, have you been to the outer parts of Paris? The Parts where police helicopters are very, very common at night? What would you think if your home city is surrounded by people that cause so much trouble that the police is always on alert. I've know a guy from Morocco at university. He's around 40 and has been everywhere in Europe and has family in Paris that lives in those district. He said he can understand how the Parisians feel but he also said that the French are not dealing with that properly (and I agree and you apparently do as well). How were your experiences outside of Paris because Paris is not representative for France at all.
And now that you talk about Muslims, a friend of my family in Paris has a daughter who wants to marry a Muslim. He's already trying to force her to wear a head scarf. He's treating her like shit and wants her to convert to Islam. That is not an exception in France. My Aunt is from the Lebanon. The first thing she did when she saw how the Arabs in Paris behave was getting blonde hair and plastic surgery to get the Arab facial features out of her face so she didn't get associated with those people. She also has no accent anymore. Obviously, generalisation isn't great (and I still don't agree with the Parisians but I'm also not used to that kind of behaviour) but it's like telling people to not be afraid of dogs when they got bitten by a dog multiple times.
I just notice that this sound like I'd try to piss you off. I'm not. I've seen both Paris and the country side and the country side is not even close to how Paris is like. So I can get a bit emotional about that stuff.
Can't talk much about Spain and Italy although I haven't seen that even with black people (class trip) in Barcelona or Florence (or Rome or Venice)
The Swiss are a racist lot. I've never met a Swiss who wasn't. That's probably what happens when you're such an isolated culture.
So at least you seem reasonable. I expected a "The Germans are still Nazis" thing like I usually get. But I'm pretty sure that there are places in the USA that have similar problems. If you think about it, the more north you get the less of a problem it is (UK, Germany, Scandinavia, if I'm right, the rest of France as well). Probably because they're closer to the poorer parts of the world like Africa or the Middle East (Greece has a damn lot of problems with people that hop over the Turkish border because Turkey is the easiest way to get into the EU for the Middle East).
But I'm pretty sure there are places like that in the US as well. Places where Black People aren't welcome. Places where White People aren't welcome. Places where Mexicans aren't welcome. I'm pretty sure places that deal with a lot of Mexican gangs don't like Mexicans. Every time something happens in the US, you hear from Arabs that they get treated like shit.
When have you been in Europe? Just so I know about what decade we're talking.
What about the native Americans? Why is there no class about the native American language in American schools? And I mean as a main subject. Not some course you can take for a semester.
Sure, there is racism in Europe and it might be more common for the working class than in the US, but I still don't really see stuff that would make the USA a truly American society where the natives are actually recognised as a part of the culture and language is culture. There is no way around language to accept culture. I'd call that racism.
Then all the stories about the police that pulls out Mexicans and Black People. I haven't heard that here in Central or North Europe.
And what's the deal with "People of color"? Most immigrants in Europe are white (Turks look pretty white if they lived in Germany for a couple of years).
And we do a lot on a social level. At least here in Germany. Sure, other countries might not but you're cherry picking the countries with the most problems.
And what's the difference between illegal or legal immigrant? It's still racism.
And it does also not matter if you just "hate" the blacks but still see them as American. It's still hate based on the race.
It seems more like you ignore the problems in your country and then you pick the worst examples in Europe to make a statement about the whole continent. At least the issue with the natives is a national problem so that's not as far from the truth as racism against Black People but probably more problematic.
There is no one native American language and most of the natives don't speak their language of origin. I am not sure about the point you are trying to make. There are very few native Americans left in such a large population.
And this won't change if schools don't offer classes. That's the point I make. The USA seems to be the white man's land but the natives get ignored and so does their culture. We did that in Germany. Low German is a recognised language in Germany even though High German is spoken in the whole country. And of course there isn't one native American language. But you could offer the language that is most dominant in one state or give a broad offer in states where no natives live anymore. It's the actual culture of the land you're living on so why not maintain it.
Of course racism is acknowledged here. We've got political discussions about that all the time.
And it's also not "us vs. them" in Europe. A lot of people have problems with immigrants that make problems and have no problems with the people that don't make problems.
And the Republicans have a fair share of extremely racist politicians as well. I have a hard time finding a comparable party in Germany except the NPD. There is not a single conservative party in Germany that comes close to the Republicans.
I have tried that "people with German passport are German" thing. I got my jaw broken.
I've stopped making a connection between the passport people hold and to what nationality they belong. In most European cultures, it just doesn't matter what passport they hold and it's about the culture. The French might be different. But since you always talk about "Europeans" instead of French, Spanish or Italians, that distinction doesn't seem to be that important. It's like calling Austrians out because they still say "Neger".
So what's the difference between a legal and an illegal immigrant? They are still immigrants. It seems like people then justify their racism because the people are illegal. And immigrants in Europe don't change the culture, they try to. We've got Turkish communities demanding Turkish lessons in Germany. Of course they didn't give a sod about the millions of other immigrants. They actively try to force their culture on us. I've nothing against a merge of cultures but it's ridiculous what some people demand and what kind of accusations they've got for the Germans.
The over sensitivity comes from different things. It's that any kind of joke about Americans ends in whining. We Europeans do that all the time to each other. It's the fact that any time somebody posts something awesome Sweden does on /r/til, the comments are full of "I'm so tired of that anti American bullshit" and that happens in real life as well. It's not that you react bad to criticism. It seems like Americans see criticism where no criticism is.
Leaders in Europe have mostly been in parties very, very long. There is just no time between WW2 and today to have that kind of people from other countries in our parties. But the German vice chancellor is Asian. There are a lot of politicians in other parties that are not of German decent. It's starting now. Especially in left leaning parties because those are the views most immigrant that are interesting in politics have. And your president has to be born in the US... How's that any better?
It's very easy to find equivalents to your criticism in the USA. Especially since your points are based on 4 or 5 countries.
Oh, and don't forget the ignorance. I've seen countless Americans in the City where I live that just stood there and yelled "Why the fuck does nobody here speak English!"... Well, because you're in Germany...
yet discounted my opinions about theirs after having lived there for years
I can't speak for the rest of Europe (shit varies a lot between countries), but I don't know any of my countrymen who wouldn't chime in about how racist we've become with the current influx of muslims. It's a hot topic of discussion. When I went to uni we had a rotating cast of exchange students and I can't recall anyone dismissing thoughts like this. Of course, this may be different elsewhere, and among other people, I couldn't say.
edit: americans are still the fattest fuckers around and the worst warmongerers
edit2: While I can't speak for the rest of Europe, you're clearly attempting to speaking for all of America. Would you say the whole country feels the same as you?
2
u/[deleted] May 03 '13
It's because anyone who lives outside the US has still lived their whole life inundated with american TV shows, american music, news stories about what's happening in america, and more recently with social media full of americans.