American Perception

            It’s a very strange feeling to turn on the news and see people destroy American flags and change anti-American slogans. The first question that pops into ones brain is, “why do they hate us?”. Let us take for example American medias portrayal of the Middle East. It’s easy for us to believe that most Muslims and the Middle Eastern world are nothing more than extremists, religious zealots on a path of destruction. With any closer inspection one would find this is not the case but it sheds light on why Americans are grouped in such a negative connotation to many cultures across the globe.

            In a effort to make Chico state students aware of these stereotypes and how they come about, the Study Abroad department held a forum featuring twelve students who have either studied abroad outside the US or come to Chico to study abroad. What these students had to say allowed the students present to become aware of why Americans are viewed in such a negative light.

            An American student may defend themselves against many stereotypes by defending our Democracy and Capitalism. Our ability to earn everything that we have starting with nothing. However in doing so we fail to acknowledge the negative influence our self serving fast pace society has on us. To others around the world Americans are often viewed as an obese, ignorant, and largely wasteful society. In examining these stereotypes its easy to see there origins with our uncountable fast food chains, products such as bottled water and endless individual packaging, and finally my personal knowledge of other cultures (which seems to be lacking compared to my international counterparts).

            This forum made me aware of why CSU Chico has implemented its cultural event requirements along with an ethnic and non-western course. With the modern age of technology the world is a constantly shrinking place which we must share with our fellow humans around the world.