I hear often, from whites especially, that the United States is too "Euro-centric." Though puzzled, I have always kept my silence.
But then I have reflected on this assertion of ostensible fact.
Since the United States for the more than two centuries since its independence has been overwhelmingly European, I am not sure how this could not been true.
Should it have been for the past 230 years Asian-centric? African-centric? Hispanic-centric?
I think the last census still points to a United States 70% Caucasian (especially if one counts Hispanic whites and Middle Eastern peoples).
Would it be better if the United States were Afro-centric? (African-Americans 12%-13% of the population).
* * * * *
With the election of Obama, it might be better to ask if the U.S. is Afro-centric. Now that we have Oprah, an African-American attorney general, Supreme Court justice, a phalanx of African-American movie superstars (Denzel, Jamie, Chris Fox, Will, Morgan Freeman, Samuel Jackson, Halle Berry, Beyonce) and music superstars (you know their names better than I do), and probably a majority of big name sports heroes, it is obvious that African-Americans are disproportional influential in culture, if not in politics (I'm not sure how one weighs the race of a president against Congress).
Jimmy Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, Prince, Michael Jackson...everybody's heard of them but has anyone but a few heard of Rene Fleming, Gerard Souzay, Maria Callas, Arthur Rubenstein...?
I'm sure William Faulkner, Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates would take a beating in a head-on contest with Toni Morrison.
Or look at advertising. How many faces of African-Americans does one see despite the fact that they barely represent one in 10 Americans? Compare that to Hispanics, Asian-Americans, still considered "foreigners" (in their own country).
I wonder how Gerard Depardieu, Marion Cotillard, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Craig, Rachel Weitz, Colin Firth stack up against Jamie, Will Smith, Denzel, etc. in terms of box-office clout and popularity. The last time I heard, 44% or so of Americans claim ancestry back to the British Isles (England/Scotland/Wales) compared to 13% to Africa.
Most recent American film dramas have to do with "the black experience" directly or indirectly: "The Butler," "Djiango Unchained," "The Help," "Lincoln," "Precious," "Dreamgirls"...Audiences eat it up.
We all know that white boys can't jump (I guess that means black men can and do), that there are too many "dead white men," e.g., Newton, Edi(black men) son, Jefferson, and Brahms, and that stupid white men have run and continue to run the country.
Ergo, it would be better and fairer if 6.5 percent of the population (black men) ran the country, from Congress to the Supreme Court to major corporations and institutions of higher learning. And we all know other people of color (Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Muslims...) would feel that they were "getting their share" if that were ever to happen ("At last! One of us!").
Black has never been more "in"; in American history, one race has never made more into the stuff of heroes and simultaneously of downtrodden victims.
* * * * *
Secondly, Americans know very little of Europe, either its history or culture. What does the average American care about Jean-Jacques Rousseau ("le Contrat Social") even if his life would otherwise have been very different without him? Or of Disraeli? The Medici? The Hundred Years War? Charles Dickens for that matter?
And who cares if the NSA has been tapping Angela Merkel's phone (who is Angela Merkel, anyway?) for years? We saved them, didn't we?
Americans are, you guessed it, sui generis.
It cannot be that Americans are Euro-centric because they overwhelmingly concern themselves little or not at all with Europe and, aside from the color of their skin, do not seem to have much in common with Europeans, culturally speaking. Europe is a foreign continent to Americans. They do not speak the languages of the continent, they do not have relatives that they have any more than a nominal contact with.
On the other hand, I find Europeans very America-centric, almost to the point of embarrassment ("selling oneself," talking loudly, or shrieking/shouting in public to indicate approval, exaggeration or boasting). Even the erstwhile Yankee-phobes, the French, know vastly more about American sitcoms than I will ever know.
More Europeans seem to know who Janet Jackson is rather than Jacques Brel (was).
Nothing is less flattering than watching Europeans (or Asians) aping Americans.
* * * * *
I am perplexed when I hear African-Americans proclaim how racist the United States is when I observe daily in a city which is 70% Caucasian all the adulation and admiration of and for African-Americans and African-American culture. In fact, I would go so far as to say that America is in love with African-Americans. What is better measure of the esteem with which Americans hold other Americans is there than looking at who their sports heroes and movie favorites are.
The other "proof" of this great infatuation is that many if not most Americans minimize or deny the statistics, albeit not that easy to find, (and often their own personal experiences of being victims) of violent crime committed by African-Americans, from majority-white cities like Seattle to heavily African-American cities like D.C. or Philadelphia.
All of the above points to the U.S. being Afro-centric, not Euro-centric.
But then I have reflected on this assertion of ostensible fact.
Since the United States for the more than two centuries since its independence has been overwhelmingly European, I am not sure how this could not been true.
Should it have been for the past 230 years Asian-centric? African-centric? Hispanic-centric?
I think the last census still points to a United States 70% Caucasian (especially if one counts Hispanic whites and Middle Eastern peoples).
Would it be better if the United States were Afro-centric? (African-Americans 12%-13% of the population).
* * * * *
With the election of Obama, it might be better to ask if the U.S. is Afro-centric. Now that we have Oprah, an African-American attorney general, Supreme Court justice, a phalanx of African-American movie superstars (Denzel, Jamie, Chris Fox, Will, Morgan Freeman, Samuel Jackson, Halle Berry, Beyonce) and music superstars (you know their names better than I do), and probably a majority of big name sports heroes, it is obvious that African-Americans are disproportional influential in culture, if not in politics (I'm not sure how one weighs the race of a president against Congress).
Jimmy Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, Prince, Michael Jackson...everybody's heard of them but has anyone but a few heard of Rene Fleming, Gerard Souzay, Maria Callas, Arthur Rubenstein...?
I'm sure William Faulkner, Henry James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates would take a beating in a head-on contest with Toni Morrison.
Or look at advertising. How many faces of African-Americans does one see despite the fact that they barely represent one in 10 Americans? Compare that to Hispanics, Asian-Americans, still considered "foreigners" (in their own country).
I wonder how Gerard Depardieu, Marion Cotillard, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Craig, Rachel Weitz, Colin Firth stack up against Jamie, Will Smith, Denzel, etc. in terms of box-office clout and popularity. The last time I heard, 44% or so of Americans claim ancestry back to the British Isles (England/Scotland/Wales) compared to 13% to Africa.
Most recent American film dramas have to do with "the black experience" directly or indirectly: "The Butler," "Djiango Unchained," "The Help," "Lincoln," "Precious," "Dreamgirls"...Audiences eat it up.
We all know that white boys can't jump (I guess that means black men can and do), that there are too many "dead white men," e.g., Newton, Edi(black men) son, Jefferson, and Brahms, and that stupid white men have run and continue to run the country.
Ergo, it would be better and fairer if 6.5 percent of the population (black men) ran the country, from Congress to the Supreme Court to major corporations and institutions of higher learning. And we all know other people of color (Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Muslims...) would feel that they were "getting their share" if that were ever to happen ("At last! One of us!").
Black has never been more "in"; in American history, one race has never made more into the stuff of heroes and simultaneously of downtrodden victims.
* * * * *
Secondly, Americans know very little of Europe, either its history or culture. What does the average American care about Jean-Jacques Rousseau ("le Contrat Social") even if his life would otherwise have been very different without him? Or of Disraeli? The Medici? The Hundred Years War? Charles Dickens for that matter?
And who cares if the NSA has been tapping Angela Merkel's phone (who is Angela Merkel, anyway?) for years? We saved them, didn't we?
Americans are, you guessed it, sui generis.
It cannot be that Americans are Euro-centric because they overwhelmingly concern themselves little or not at all with Europe and, aside from the color of their skin, do not seem to have much in common with Europeans, culturally speaking. Europe is a foreign continent to Americans. They do not speak the languages of the continent, they do not have relatives that they have any more than a nominal contact with.
On the other hand, I find Europeans very America-centric, almost to the point of embarrassment ("selling oneself," talking loudly, or shrieking/shouting in public to indicate approval, exaggeration or boasting). Even the erstwhile Yankee-phobes, the French, know vastly more about American sitcoms than I will ever know.
More Europeans seem to know who Janet Jackson is rather than Jacques Brel (was).
Nothing is less flattering than watching Europeans (or Asians) aping Americans.
* * * * *
I am perplexed when I hear African-Americans proclaim how racist the United States is when I observe daily in a city which is 70% Caucasian all the adulation and admiration of and for African-Americans and African-American culture. In fact, I would go so far as to say that America is in love with African-Americans. What is better measure of the esteem with which Americans hold other Americans is there than looking at who their sports heroes and movie favorites are.
The other "proof" of this great infatuation is that many if not most Americans minimize or deny the statistics, albeit not that easy to find, (and often their own personal experiences of being victims) of violent crime committed by African-Americans, from majority-white cities like Seattle to heavily African-American cities like D.C. or Philadelphia.
All of the above points to the U.S. being Afro-centric, not Euro-centric.
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