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American Prejudice


Miccol

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Does anyone feel or think that a lot of the comments over the United States are more stereotypical than fact? From your experiences do you think people are prejudice towards Americans? I think it is obvious that the United States is not well liked anymore throughout the world (especially in certain areas of Central and South America)... I would just like to hear your thoughts over how the United States is portrayed and if you find this accurate... Thanks! Hopefully I didn't sound biased..

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Does anyone feel or think that a lot of the comments over the United States are more stereotypical than fact?

Yes, but I believe that the same can be said for practically any country out there. This is not a good thing, of course, but I don't think that it's unique to the United States.

I would just like to hear your thoughts over how the United States is portrayed and if you find this accurate...

Americans are stereotyped to be overweight, which is not something that is unique to the US and certainly isn't an accurate portrayal of an entire country. I've also heard a lot about high schools in the US being full of cliques/bullying to the extreme -- I can't say whether or not this is accurate, considering I've never really been to the US, but I doubt that it's as bad as the media portrays it to be.

Interesting topic.

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Definitely a lot of the comments are stereotypical - I mean, clearly more or less any generalisation you make about any nation is going to be a stereotyped type thing rather than fact. However, stereotype and fact don't necessarily differ all that much in many things relating to the US. Just look at the stats for things like belonging to the national rifle association, the frankly shockingly large number of people who voted Republican, the reception of the health reforms, the number of americans who travel outside america, the % of the population who are overweight, the relative portion size, the amount of sugar put into food, the number of people who attend church and are religious... these aren't exactly minority facts. Even given that they're stereotypes, they apply to an awful lot of people.

So, the overweight gun-wielding internationally-ignorant socially-backward religious extremist american... it's a stereotype but with a grain of truth behind!

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I think that's rather politically charged calling them socially backward. One could argue some liberal innovations are intact regressive depending on your views. However on the topic of the stereotypes of the US. I would agree there is a grain of truth to it, in fact a huge grain haha. All stereotypes exist for a reason and for a population buy and large you can apply them. That being said, don't judge individuals by them as people on their own tend to vary. The American people themselves stereotype other nations. I like to think of it as something we as a species can all share. Cheers to stereotypes!

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Well, as we learn in our beloved TOK classes, it doesn't take much for one to over-generalize something ;)

As for me, I've heard things like "most Americans are fat", "they're very unaware about what's outside their country", and other much ruder stereotypes, but the many Americans I've met seem to be very nice, friendly and healthy people so I'm not sure where all these rumors started. (Although the U.S. does have a high obesity rate)

My best friend's an american and he's the awesomest guy in the world. When I tease him about being american we both know i'm joking as I know half the rumors out there are unfounded.

So I do get what you mean by "American prejudice" ;)

Still, I can't resist showing you this video (hope you don't get offended, it's just a stereotypical joke thing meant to be funny):

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