I know a biker who wraps his long, greasy hair in a Confederate flag bandana. He complains about his new neighbourhood’s multiplying immigrants, explaining that he does not like change. He owns a tattoo parlour and is well-decorated in ink. His girlfriend, who has 17 “tats” of her own, tells me their retirement plan is to move to Arizona, be with “a bunch of white people who speak English like us,” and exercise their God-given right to carry a gun. Or two.
No, the couple I’ve described is not from Texas. They live in Scarborough.
They are living proof that the xenophobic, isolationist worldview that gives enthusiastic proponents of American patriotism a bad reputation can in fact be found everywhere-even in Canada.
As an American, I know that our support for both the successes and failures of our government has given Americans a reputation for egoism. However, though many Canadians would argue otherwise, we don’t all walk around with the stars and stripes in one hand and a gun in the other. Movies like American Dreamz and television shows like Family Guy and American Dad are in fact funny to us for the same reasons they are to you-we are mocking our exaggerated nationalism. Yet I worry that Canadians only partially get the joke.
The core of American pride in the stars and stripes is based on our political system. A legislative process designed to work slowly and cautiously teaches each citizen to trust in the lawmakers who came before us.
Americans have a sense of historical tradition that seems to be lost when one crosses the border. Years of strolling the hallways of a public school lined with each president’s portrait led this American girl to buy a book about the personal lives of her country’s greatest leaders. That 12-year-old history buff grew up to discuss the hilarity of President Taft getting stuck in the White House bathroom while at a bar on Bay Street.
Besides a sense of historical pride, our patriotism is linked to the age-old debate of melting pot versus mosaic. In the U.S, I am American first and Polish second. In the words of hip-hop MC Immortal Technique, “There’s no diversity because we’re burning in the melting pot.”
For better or for worse, the melting pot has unified Americans in a way that Canada has yet to experience. Canadians seem to be so obsessed with multiculturalism that they have lost the meaning of what it is to be Canadian. The only definition that seems to be commonly accepted is that Canadians are not Americans.
In my first lecture of Canadian Comparative Politics last year, the professor presented the class of some 300 students with the question, “Are Canadians patriotic?” As an outsider, this is something I also have to ask. The consensus in class was that they must be, because they wave their flag and sing the national anthem. That’s patriotism, is it not?
In Canada, these outward signs of allegiance appear to be enough. But in America, our patriotism is linked directly to our historical pride. Too often, U.S. patriotism is equated with ignorance of the government’s secrecy and underhanded behaviour. However, it is possible to be educated about disasters like Guantanamo Bay and the response to Hurricane Katrina and still have faith in a political system that has seen many ups and downs.
I am from Detroit, Michigan, a city I have grown accustomed to defending. A friend described it best when he said, “Detroit is like your ugly child-you know it’s ugly, but you can’t let anyone else say that it is.” Yet despite having to stand up for my hometown, it was not until coming to Toronto that I was labeled “the American” and asked to defend an entire country too.
And not only defend-I’m asked to rationalize every mistake the U.S. government has ever committed. No matter how many times I inform my attackers that I, in fact, do not support the war in Iraq, I still get hassled with “But why does the U.S. think they’re above the UN?” and “Bush is the real terrorist.” People don’t realize that I am actually standing on a street corner with them in downtown Toronto, not at a pro-war rally in Washington, D.C.
President Gerald Ford’s recent funeral was an enlightening moment in my quest to understand why Canadians hit a glass wall when trying to understand American patriotism. Canadians view American politicians as celebrities. And while these public figures are inflated in U.S. culture as well, they are most importantly regarded as members of our American family-again, for better or for worse. Funerals for leaders like President Ford and Rosa Parks confirm that the American people have a very real relationship with their leaders, both as public figures and regular people.
I am sure Canadians feel a similar connection with their own politicians, but anti-American sentiment is founded on how Canadians feel about American leaders. It is much harder to accept the flaws of a stranger then those of your own family members.
Anti-Americanism in Canada grew in prominence after the invasion of Iraq, parallel to the Canadian fear of American patriotism. Canadians seem to shake in their boots over Joe American wanting to “hunt down and kill all them damn terrorists.”
If the average American felt this way, I would be frightened too. However, it seems that, five years later, this misconstrued anti-Americanism is being applied to remembering the Sept. 11 attacks as well. This year there was a Sept. 11 memorial service at the U.S. consulate in Toronto. Leading up to the date, many local columnists criticized Canada’s special attention to the attacks, considering how few Canadians were harmed. In reality, many Canadians were harmed, either directly or through the loss of loved ones.
It seems too convenient for Canadians to pick and choose which parts of American culture will be celebrated or neglected in Canada. Thousands across the nation watched World Trade Center, but less than 50 people were outside the consulate to memorialize the actual attacks.
Canadians are correct in thinking that the American government manipulated our fears over those attacks in order to launch the “war on terrorism,” but one administration cannot alter the nationalism embedded in the American heart. People wave their flag in support of the key freedoms that the American constitution preserves, not necessarily to glorify the current administration. I am a Democrat who would like nothing more than to see President Bush and his followers out of office. Nonetheless, I still consider myself a true patriot.
We are not all fanatics, and we are not all brainwashed by Big Brother. We are, however, all Americans.
In every society, a portion of the population will exaggerate the worst parts of their culture, whether they live in small town America or in Scarborough. We are entertained by these characters because their opinions are so extreme.
The reality is that these people are isolated and do not represent the average citizen, nor do they have any real political power. The typical Canadian perception of their southern neighbours is as real as the American belief that all Canadians say “aboot” and wear flannel.
So the next time you travel to the States and see bumper stickers such as “Only God can forgive Osama Bin Laden, it’s our responsibility to arrange the meeting” and “If you don’t like my flag call 1-800-LEAVE THE USA,” you can laugh at the idiocy. It’s more than likely that the American driving next to you is laughing too.
