Another day, another American making a scene in some distant foreign country and draw the ire of the locals. The latest is what has never been that uncommon of a phenomenon involves an African-American English teacher beating up a middle-aged Korean man for supposed use of "nigga," the derogatory term for blacks. The Korean man was in fact saying "니가..." Korean for "You..." Perhaps the black man was so drunk that he did not realize that the Korean man was speaking to him in Korean. He did not bother clarifying the situation; he just immediately resorted to shouting back in English and throwing punches.
Obviously, this pathetic idiot cannot possibly be your typical representative of a foreign man living in a country where he does not speaks the language. He cannot represent America, or the typical African-American. But at the same time, it is not the first instance in which obvious conflicts between locals and Americans have occurred, and comparatively speaking, a black man beating up fellow passengers on a bus is relatively episode. In the past, there have been instances of Americans raping and killing local females, doing drunk hit-and-run, and even still-instigated serial murders.
And while these stories have been practically unknown in America (where, to be honest, similar things happen in the ghettos literally all the time and are thus not particularly newsworthy), the local media in foreign countries have made them major news. Especially in safe developed countries like South Korea, the fact that an extremely rare incident of violent crime is caused by a foreigner is often quite shocking to the locals. And with some Sensationalization, the media can easily create the illusion that foreigners are dangerous.
Funny enough, Americans somehow always top the list when it comes to dangerous foreigners committing violent crimes (Yes, the Chinese often are not trusted either, but usually for pickpockets and frauds). And it is all the more ironic considering just how much youngsters in foreign countries love American pop culture, and that America, as the major ally for many of these same foreign states, is indispensable as military and political protector even in the post-Cold War era.
That discrepancy between the "protector" status of America as a nation and "criminal" image of America as individuals may be responsible for fueling the sense of unfair treatment American feel that are getting while abroad. Some Americans feel that locals should give them preferential status for helping them with economic development, providing them with basis for their own pop cultures, and teaching them the "international standards" of (American) English language and American business practices.
Yet, when the Americans land in foreign countries, they almost always discover themselves under-appreciated. Some locals lecture on and on about the greatness of their own way of doing things, and many locals refuse to even show efforts for trying to speak English and be more Western in their behavior and ways of thinking. Some Americans are absolutely repulsed to find that some locals are even foolhardy enough to refuse "cooperation," citing "social and cultural differences."
Suddenly having the expected "preferential status," or at least above-normal (relative to other nationalities) respect and admiration not materialize, the Americans, by their own logic, deserve to be angry. And being the socially open people that they are, they often make it clear in public about how much anger they are feeling. They "lavish" their anger upon the locals as acts of hatred, which sometimes "blossom" into beating up locals on buses, raping their daughters, and refusing to be tried in local courts after killing locals.
And with the Americans being so blatant in their behavior, having the locals breed constant hatred toward Americans would not be surprising either. Its just that the locals (perhaps with the exceptions of the Chinese and North Koreans) cannot openly express as such due to the continued dominance of America as a global political, economic, military, and cultural superpower. It will be interesting to see how Americans as individuals will change their ways of interacting with locals as America's international profiles go through a relative decline in the near future.
Obviously, this pathetic idiot cannot possibly be your typical representative of a foreign man living in a country where he does not speaks the language. He cannot represent America, or the typical African-American. But at the same time, it is not the first instance in which obvious conflicts between locals and Americans have occurred, and comparatively speaking, a black man beating up fellow passengers on a bus is relatively episode. In the past, there have been instances of Americans raping and killing local females, doing drunk hit-and-run, and even still-instigated serial murders.
And while these stories have been practically unknown in America (where, to be honest, similar things happen in the ghettos literally all the time and are thus not particularly newsworthy), the local media in foreign countries have made them major news. Especially in safe developed countries like South Korea, the fact that an extremely rare incident of violent crime is caused by a foreigner is often quite shocking to the locals. And with some Sensationalization, the media can easily create the illusion that foreigners are dangerous.
Funny enough, Americans somehow always top the list when it comes to dangerous foreigners committing violent crimes (Yes, the Chinese often are not trusted either, but usually for pickpockets and frauds). And it is all the more ironic considering just how much youngsters in foreign countries love American pop culture, and that America, as the major ally for many of these same foreign states, is indispensable as military and political protector even in the post-Cold War era.
That discrepancy between the "protector" status of America as a nation and "criminal" image of America as individuals may be responsible for fueling the sense of unfair treatment American feel that are getting while abroad. Some Americans feel that locals should give them preferential status for helping them with economic development, providing them with basis for their own pop cultures, and teaching them the "international standards" of (American) English language and American business practices.
Yet, when the Americans land in foreign countries, they almost always discover themselves under-appreciated. Some locals lecture on and on about the greatness of their own way of doing things, and many locals refuse to even show efforts for trying to speak English and be more Western in their behavior and ways of thinking. Some Americans are absolutely repulsed to find that some locals are even foolhardy enough to refuse "cooperation," citing "social and cultural differences."
Suddenly having the expected "preferential status," or at least above-normal (relative to other nationalities) respect and admiration not materialize, the Americans, by their own logic, deserve to be angry. And being the socially open people that they are, they often make it clear in public about how much anger they are feeling. They "lavish" their anger upon the locals as acts of hatred, which sometimes "blossom" into beating up locals on buses, raping their daughters, and refusing to be tried in local courts after killing locals.
And with the Americans being so blatant in their behavior, having the locals breed constant hatred toward Americans would not be surprising either. Its just that the locals (perhaps with the exceptions of the Chinese and North Koreans) cannot openly express as such due to the continued dominance of America as a global political, economic, military, and cultural superpower. It will be interesting to see how Americans as individuals will change their ways of interacting with locals as America's international profiles go through a relative decline in the near future.
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