Bear with me as I deviate slightly from my normal food-focus to throw an additional hand grenade on the current political debate. Take it as being in the capital of a country obsessed with perception, racial debate, and nationalism. Or caused by my "day job", which has caused me to travel the world in an effort to exercise "smart power" as Secretary Clinton has coined it, when dealing in the international forum.
Which reminds me, all posts, tweets, facebook comments are purely my own and not representative of any professional affiliation.
While I was gone, a colleague made a series of comments which ultimately resulted in her calling myself and several other ethnic minorities "not American". When I called her out, she then apologized and said it was that we "didn't look American."
...
What exactly does an American look like? I began asking, both frustrated and insulted. My question, fully loaded with an undertow of accusations, put her off-balance. And the more she back-peddled, the harder I pushed. Because I think the question is valid.
What does an American look like?
Frequently representing our country overseas, there are several points in which my national identity is at first confused. I understand that, they are not my fellow Americans. And frankly, the curiosity of my interlocutors are often more frequently regarding my position since I am a woman than my ethnic background. But that's for another discussion.
During this last trip, folks particularly in North Africa often confused me as Chinese (I'm ethnically Korean). As soon as I said, "La, Ameriqi" (No, American), the general response was "aaah" and the light of understanding was visible. At one point, a local shouted to me in a high pitched, excited voice, "You Americans--you look like--all the world! But one country! It is crazy!!" in response to a discussion regarding tribal roles within the cultural structure and social normals of his particular country. Which, I found out, was not his, despite the years which he lived there, as he was originally from a neighboring country. The notion of a country comprised of the rest of the world, and for someone like myself, a first generation transplant, to be able to claim, moreover actively work for, my "new" country absolutely mystified him.
And made me proud. Proud to be an American. Proud to be able to tell folks with whom I dealt with on a daily basis, that yes, I believe the American dream is a dream of diversity, rooted in personal responsibility, social accountability, economic pursuit, and freedom of religious and philosophical expression. And that I was able to grow their understanding of who we are--that we are not the caricature that they so often want to believe. Ironically, ethnic diversity is part of the American image they inherently recognize since many of our celebrities are cross-cultural. Name ten of the top American celebrities the world would recognize and you are bound to have a number of them either first, second, or third-generation Americans. To countries who have been around thousands of years, the fact that in two, or in my case, one, generation we can claim an identity which is greater than our ethnicity is...well, crazy. And pretty unique to Americanism.
What troubled me, and still does, is that this mystified recognition by my international counterparts seemed somehow lost on my colleague who so ignorantly called myself and several other minorities...not American. And that her unintentional accusation stemmed from our ethnicity varying from hers. And here we all were together, committed to the promulgation of our national interest in a foreign land. Even more disturbing was returning and hearing this sentiment echoed by certain well-meaning friends and family. I say well meaning because I know in no way were they trying to question my patriotism or American identity.
But they did.
To me, racism is abhorrent because it is demeaning the humanity of another person by virtue of their race--skin color and culture. I do not think that either my friends or my family members who questioned my Americanism based on my skin color were in any way questioning my humanity. So I hesitate to call the comments racist. The comments were prejudiced, but it's the subtle prejudice of the day, not the deep rooted hatred that our country has so famously fought. We are a nation known for our self-loathing because of the treatment we have pushed on our own--on fellow Americans. Every single cultural group on this planet has committed and received violent, terrible, acts of racism and prejudice. What I love about being American is that part of our cultural identity is the active war we have raged against this atrocity. However imperfectly we have waged it, the fight for common ground among the various cultures blended together to be our own, continues. Americans have no race, we have no identified skin color, and our culture is unique in its constant blending of other cultures. We have each other.
And I am expecting multiple phone calls and emails from these well meaning folks who read my blog and are mortified that I found their comments insulting, particularly in light of what I have done for my country. So let me be clear: I love my family and friends, including the ones who made the egregious comments. And I understand the position from which they are derived--I don't look like them. And had they mentioned something about my appearance not looking Western, I would understand, and it would not have cut so deeply. Because I don't look Western. But I don't believe America does either. Although it often represents "the West", that is a deep misnomer that I think does our country great disservice within the international domain. Walk through any major city or university in our great nation and you will understand what I mean. We are not a country comprised of Western European, North American, Latin, Central, and South American countries. We are comprised of the entire world.
And I know I don't need to explain how this relates to food, and "American food"...but you'll have to read future blogs for that ;)
So, I ask you, what does America look like? What does American look like?
xoxo,
Food and the Fury
