Caroline meeting people, gaining insights

The perception people have here of America is really interesting. Cab drivers who I talk to that find out my friends and I are from the States generally get excited about it. I had one driver the other day who when he found out exclaimed “I have Americans in my cab right now!!” I’ve also gotten some questions that I initially thought were kind of strange. I’ve gotten asked things like “Are there poor people in America?” and “Are there black people in America?” I responded to both of these questions with “Of course!” accompanied a bit of a chuckle, because the answers to these questions are so obvious to me. But after thinking about them, I have realized that maybe these questions aren’t so strange after all. Hearing about how America is the land of opportunity so many times, how amazing it must be, and how nearly every person I engage in conversation with would just loooove to visit the United States someday if they haven’t already has made me think about just where people are getting their perceptions of our country from.

Talking about experiences like this with other people on the trip and learning about the not-so-great side of our country’s history, especially concerning race, in Marita’s class has helped me come up with some ideas. It’s really interesting to be on the other side of the world and examine the history of the United States, its institutions, and why things are the way they are. Being here has made me more critical of the United States, or rather maybe not critical, but analytical, or realistic, or pragmatic. The distance helps to open your eyes and see what is systematically wrong with our country. Hearing how the perception of the US across seas is extremely skewed toward the positive makes you think more about the negative. Despite the widespread admiration for the States that I have found here, I find myself becoming more disenchanted with the idea that America is “the greatest country on earth.” The fact that your average person here only has a few select ideas about what America is like is telling of how the country came to be what it is today. A certain group of people in power over the course of our nation’s history have created a single-sided image of how the country is, and have swept all of the bad things – albeit the truth- under the rug.

Conversely, it’s really interesting to analyze the perceptions that Americans have of Africa. I have gotten a question several times along the lines of, “What do Americans really think about Africa?” and I reply truthfully. I say that most of the time, people back home just think of Africa, the largest continent on earth, as just one place. They assume that the entire land mass is stuck in the past, not technologically advanced at all. They hear the word ‘safari’ or ‘huts’ or ‘tribe’ a couple times and just assume the entire country is nearly entirely undeveloped and never bother to really learn what Africa is like. The countries here are so incredibly diverse, and South Africa is probably the most westernized country on the continent. At school, we barely touched upon African history compared to the time spent on European history. Who decided that the history of one area is more important than another?

This past weekend we went to a human rights workshop and met a ton of really cool people from places like Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Somalia, and South Africa. We had a lot of thought-provoking conversations and learned about differences between human, civil, and political rights. We did exercises meant to give us perspective on human rights issues and learned about struggles that refugees and asylum seekers face. My favorite part of the weekend was when we broke down into groups assigned to represent different countries and had to create a play about their history, daily life, and certain human rights violations taking place. We learned about the diverse past and current situations of Malawi, Egypt, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria. I was assigned Zimbabwe, and portrayed their president Robert Mugabe in the play. I took my role quite seriously, and when I emerged in baggy men’s dress clothes, glasses, and Mugabe’s trademark mustache, I had the whole audience dying with laughter. It was really fun to learn about and bond with people from other countries and hear their personal experiences. I really valued the trip because not only did I gain insight about the importance of human rights, I created relationships with some really incredible people from places that are totally foreign to me. I am thankful that I met people that I never would have had the opportunity to get to know before, and I hope that we can remain connected and have meaningful discussions together in the future.