The Invisible American Social Divide

More than ten years ago a young Anglo American Californian noted, after returning from a long trip across the Middle East, Asia and Australia:

I never realized how Americanized the world has become. Everywhere I went people were either more Americanized than when I remember them, or they were eager to show me how American they were - in their lifestyles, social beliefs, cultural practices, leisure activities, product preferences...Their language has changed, their clothes have changed, their mannerisms have changed and their attitudes have changed. I did not feel good about this. I felt like I got more of the old world, ethnic world or non-American world, however one wants to put it, back in California where many immigrants and minorities appeared less American. I found this Americanization most acute in many global cities, urban areas, among the middle class, the upwardly mobile and the elites. It made me so distraught that sometimes I feel I cannot breathe on planet earth anymore - it has become culturally stifling and suffocating. Do not get me wrong, I am very American...and one who is very proud of my country. But more American influence I see around the world, more worried for the world and for my own country I become.

This kind of globalization, when few selective societies create a mono-culture, similar to the mono-crop in agriculture (that overtime depletes the land of essential minerals due to lack of crop variety), can not only homogenize the landscape culturally and socially... but politically too. We already find words like "civilized and developed" have acquired a narrow biased definition in many popular discussions.

A late night American TV comedian, part of a group that has now become, in some communities for the younger generation, the exclusive providers of news and analysis, talked about how "wearing pants - jeans in particular, suits, etc." - Western attire, represents "civilization, civility and humanity". In this logic many cowboys in jeans who shot Natives and Blacks must be civilized, and white-collar criminals in expensive three piece suits must be "evolved".

Some of the enlightened critics of dictatorship and oligarchy in the Middle East, without fluency in English, have been dignified natives of their land who wore their traditional garb with pride. The men who drove planes through US buildings on Sept. 11 wore Western clothes and ate a lot of fast food.

When celebrities and the press in the US continuously present a world view that is selective, biased and lack a more sophisticated understanding of culture, community and the collective, both inside and outside the US, we see how judgements on people and cultures - that which can be subtle, is biased by the strict reading of the visible exclusively - or that which is obvious. 

It took decades for the Afro hair and Black dreadlocks to become acceptable and even popular among the Anglo youth, artists and radicals. Now being "Black", with a distinct Black "look" or fashion, is acceptable, popular and even expected.

Similarly nose studs or rings among White or American youngsters is considered acceptable, and may even be cool - meaning trendy and fashionable, in many cities. But nose studs and rings on Asian women, who have traditionally worn them, is considered to be un-American, or signs of inadequate acculturation. What the Anglo majority in some communities, and the Conservative minority in others, do or don't still defines "acceptability, respectability and popularity" in the United States.

As a Black historian and sociologist, Cornell West, once said (paraphrased), "There is a litmus test, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle and sometimes shifting, that determines whether a culture, an ethnic group or a race will be tolerated, included and/or integrated in the United States".

This litmus test might change, but the test itself remains: sometimes obvious and sometimes not-so-obvious.

If minority cultures, not just minority communities, are constantly regarded in the US as "pathological" or "less than", we now have "American attire, appearance, fashion and mannerism" being exported, by the American press mostly and some conservative commentators, as the very essence of  American justice, liberty, fraternity, freedom and fun. 

The question that is rarely asked in these public forums is, "How does the evolution of the mind occur, or even begin, with a mere 'pant, shirt, vest, coat and a tie?" How do  superficial changes in attire, appearance and physical affliction indicate or affirm changes in attitudes, beliefs and values? And are all values and attitudes from the US equally important, good and helpful to other communities, cultures and countries?

Yet what such changes globally do provide is a "comfort zone" for the American traveller, visitor, immigrant, expatriate and the businessman...and possibly a false sense of change. Some well known American social commentators, like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Ralph Nader, etc. called this  "American cultural imperialism".

But what such a general critique on "American cultural imperialism"  overlooks, even globally, is the "deep social and political divisions" that exist in the United States - beyond its cultural homogenization or uniformity. A divide that is hard to see, and getting harder to bridge.

Conservatives, who have now begun to dominate many research and academic institutions in the United States, consider "Anti-Americanism" synonymous with "anti-capitalism", "anti-democracy" or "anti-American foreign policy"...while Liberals, a shrinking group in the media, have become the biggest, and at times the only, critical voice of everything popularly, politically and prevalently American.

Hence, added to the "cultural selectivity and myopia", in the way America is marketed to the world, there is a false belief  that "cultural America is synonymous with political America". This overlooks the fact that, while America may appear outwardly "similar, the same or homogeneous" across the United States, politically it remains diverse, and in some core social beliefs it remains divided.

Lets take women's reproductive rights - including safe, affordable and accessible medical termination of unwanted pregnancies. The Right in America, made up of fiscal, religious and social Conservatives, want to limit choices for women...with an emphasis on old fashioned view of women's role in families and societies. Liberals want to protect reproductive choices that have been legally fought for and won, and expand existing rights if possible. This battle, between the social Left and the social Right, has been fought again and again in many elections and public policies. Yet this divide is not evident in the clothes that people wear, or their outward demeanor. But this divide remains deep and political.

While "Americanization" might be a cultural influence that is often popularly adopted or passionately criticized outside the US, "American exactness" in certain social values and mores, demanded by Conservatives domestically, is actively condemned by American Liberals. This social divide is hard to see, and it is growing.

Just as "diversity and individuality" among minorities, immigrants and people of color were rarely recognized, or taken seriously, making it easy to stereotype them and put them in narrow social and cultural boxes, social divisions in the United States, that will have political repercussions, have been ignored by the popular press - or treated trivially.

American social divide, on issues such as women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, strict gun control laws, separation of State and religion, criticisms of bailout for private businesses (that should adhere to strict capitalistic conduct, in a capitalistic society, of paying for their own risks and business failures), etc. is real and deep - though hard to see through its cultural homogeniety.

This explains why, even as "cultural America" is obvious, widely adopted, embraced and popularly discussed around the world, the more subtle, or hidden, social and political divide within the US is barely recognized around the world - let alone understood.

One cannot understand the mind, its beliefs, values and passions, by merely looking at the way the body of the mind dresses, talks, walks, presents itself or parades. That should be common knowledge or common sense to most. But in the "Americanization of the world" the deep internal social divide, with its political face, within the United States remains little understood and mostly unacknowledged.