People are usually identify based on their citizenship, but we are really all human first no matter what nation we are from. It doesn't matter if you have a background in sociology or went to college for a criminal justice degree; everyone should understand other nations and look to others with an open mind.
As different as we may look, according to Carleton University no one can dispute that there are more differences within populations than between them and we can all trace our start to one family that lived 200,000 years ago. Creative and intellectual debate and exchange is important, but at the end of the day, we all are more similar than we think.
According to Benedict Anderson, an imagined community is that even though not every citizen will intimately know every other citizen, all citizens of that nation are connected through their citizenship. In Benedict Anderson's own work, the imagined community is not only what creates national identity and national pride, or nationalism, but it is how it spreads. This imagined bond creates an "us" mentality. For many Americans, democracy is the superior governing entity because of this collective national identity that is firmly rooted in American history.
If there is an “us” in nationalism there is also a “them” concept.
For example, celebrated scholar, Edward Said, called his term of “them” as the “Other” in Orientalism. Emory University cites Said's use of the Other as, “a system of representations framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and Western empire. The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is a mirror image of what is inferior and alien (Other) to the West.”
Even though Bachelor of Arts degrees are on the rise, Americans are still ignorant about issues at home and abroad. According to CNN in 2011 only 30 percent of Americans have passports. Meanwhile, 60 percent of Canadians and 75 percent of United Kingdom citizens have passports. Despite being more interconnected than ever, the Pew Research Center notes how despite earlier generations before them, Americans in 2007 could not name the Russian president or even their own vice president. While there are many implications for Americans being too comfortable and complacent, many will never experience or come close to understanding the political systems, religions or cultures of the Other.
As scholars Daniel Byrne and Anne Foster note in their research paper Holding the Line: Race, Racism, and American Foreign Policy, American foreign policy was built on officials' personal racist biases; a tradition that has its roots in slavery and imperialism. What can we do with the Other when we know so little about them? Often, an irrational fear that spurs hatred and fear can arise, also known as xenophobia. In order to protect ourselves from this Other, we militarize it to justify it. Instances like the National Geographic's show “Border Wars” or Former President Bush's rhetoric on “the war on terror” just spews the justification of hate.
Unfortunately, this type of hate is directed to human beings and can cause deep psychological, emotional, mental and physical traumas. In an increasingly globalized world, we can and must learn from each other. Let us open our minds and hearts and prove to ourselves and the world that Americans are not stupid, and above all, tolerant.
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