On Being American.

Probably anyone reading this blog is sitting somewhere in America, wanting to know what I’ve been up to here in India. Probably, along with the rest of the country, you all have been hearing from the media about the crazy Muslims throughout the eastern world who are attacking US ambassadors and the like. Perhaps you have even been wondering if I’m okay or have had any exposure to these troubles. (Rest assured, I have been completely safe during my stay in India.) In fact, if I were in America, I would probably be sitting in my dorm room, completely in the dark about whatever was happening except for maybe the occasional blurb on Yahoo news. But I’m not in America; I’m in India. I don’t have the luxury of ignorance or nonchalance here because I am in the part of the world where the trouble is. The biggest problems happening in India right now are in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu—which is the state I’m living in. Chennai is quite a distance from my city, but still. It is a little tense even here in Coimbatore. On Friday there was a protest put on by a group of Muslims called the TMMK trying to get the government to ban the film “The Innocence of Muslims” during which an American flag and an effigy of Obama were burned. The US Consulate in Chennai was attacked and has been shut down for the past few days for safety reasons.

It is interesting to read the newspapers here and understand this situation from a non-American perspective. All over the world, Muslims who feel victimized are calling for their governments to ban this offensive film and for the American government to ban it on their end. Coming as I do from a good understanding of what American freedom of speech is, I understand that the leaders of America’s hands are tied. There is nothing they can do to stop the video from being publicized. I get that, and I think that the people criticizing the American government for not taking action need to consider that it would be constitutionally illegal to censor this video. These people are being a little ridiculous by asking for the movie to be banned stateside, in my opinion. That being said, I feel equally endangered by the men who made this movie as I do by the people who are up in arms about it. The producer of the film supposedly said that though it is regrettable that people have died in response to this film, he will not stop its production nor does he regret making it. I was completely appalled by that statement. I haven’t seen the video, but cannot fathom that it is worth the lives of multiple people. What makes them think that their opinions are valuable enough to not even care that people are dying for their offensive content.

It is foolish and unnecessary for the general public of Muslims to resort to violence about some stupid thing that Americans did, because everybody knows that Americans make stupid offensive blunders all the time. But even more horrific and embarrassing to me is that I am from a country where someone can think that his personal opinions are more valuable than another person’s life. How selfish. How uncivilized. And who’s to say that I won’t be the next person harmed over this film? Or the other students in my group, or director of the India Studies Program or one of his young children? Or some other American student studying abroad in a Muslim country, just trying to learn about a different culture, to bridge a gap of misunderstanding and judgment that results in unnecessary violence? We’re just people. Nobody that I’m here with has seen the movie in question, and we certainly weren’t involved in the production of it, but to an angry mob of protesters our pale faces represent a selfish, rude individual who refuses to respect their culture. The color of my skin incriminates me. It is virtually impossible for me to blend in now, which was awkward when I first got here but now would be better described as alarming. I don’t want to die for some arrogant jerk’s video that I haven’t even seen. Yet he doesn’t feel compelled to stop the publication of this film. He doesn’t even feel compelled to adequately apologize. All I can say about this situation is that I am deeply disappointed in both parties responsible for the deaths of these innocent people.  

There was a small article in the newspaper a few days ago that called for the Muslim riot bands to wise up. It said that they were doing more harm than good and destroying anything beneficial that had been accomplished by Arab Spring. The article pointed out that by taking a reasonable and non-violent protest against the offensive video they would have surprised the westerners and probably would have earned some respect and perhaps even made headway in the issue. I was disappointed by just how little space the article took up in the paper because I thought it was well articulated and perfectly reasonable.

Throughout this entire fiasco, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to be an American and be proud of that fact.  During other trips abroad, I’ve been aware of the general view the rest of the world has that Americans are lazy, stupid, rude, and immodest, but it hasn’t ever really affected me or my experiences. I’ve never been ashamed to be American before. I still don’t know if ashamed is the right word to describe my emotion toward my nationality, but pride is certainly a far cry from what I’m feeling. I don’t know how we’ve convinced ourselves that we are greater or better than our neighbors around the world, or that what we do doesn’t affect them, or that their opinions don’t matter, but this view must be wrong. I’m not sure if our freedom is worth what we think it is. If the application of freedom on American soil means that Americans abroad, who don’t have the benefit of protection due to freedom of speech, are endangered, is that freedom real? And if so, is it worth it? Though free from legal repercussions for voicing our opinions, there is no freedom from the real life consequences of our actions.  

Anyway, those are some of the things that have been swirling around in my head over the past few days. This post is simply my thought process, me working through all of the difficult moments that I’ve been faced with recently.