Not gonna lie I’ve been totally obsessed with watching all the videos from international folks mostly Europeans, who have traveled to America for the FIFA World Cup and what is unexpected is that it’s reminding me of the things that are awesome about this country as much as I don’t love it here. I don’t love what America stands for even though it could be something greater and with the nation so divided. It was nice to see outside perspectives and one of the things that I saw resounding, especially in Europe is that they felt like they were lied to with how awful America was and how awful Americans are by their news media. There’s so much anti-western anti-American rhetoric going around. I get the anti-capitalist aspect of it because at this point in late stage capitalism it’s obvious kind of isn’t working and really sucks.
I found so many things endearing from things we barely notice or even take for granted. It goes without saying that Ranch dressing seems to have been a big hit and we have extra big food and beverages here. I myself has never stepped foot in a Waffle House or Golden Corral, and a lot of what they are experiencing as the Americana cuisine. While I don't often frequent those places, I do, however, love any independent Mom and Pop shop kind of restaurant and that’s something that came from all the years I lived in Philadelphia. I never had to go to Cheesecake Factory or Applebee’s because 99% of the time there was a solid chance of finding some hole in the wall amazing cuisine from any number of international places. The number one thing I miss from Philadelphia to this day is Ethiopian food because I lived in a neighborhood in West Philly that had a very high Ethiopian and Somali population and had like four or five Ethiopian restaurants in my neighborhood alone.
The thing that I want to point out with America is that international folks don’t understand is that depending where you are here that there is a wide and I mean extra wide variation from state to state, city to city, and neighborhood to neighborhood and there are more glaring differences with socioeconomic status. Appalachians towns up are going to be unfathomably different than a suburb of a major metropolitan area or the cities themselves. You can't compare Detroit to New York City in that sense. My partner grew up about a three hour drive from me in Central Pennsylvania, whereas I am in the East and I often joke that we may has well have grown up on different planets because our experiences and lives were so different as a result of our geography.
That said all places are complicated and all people are complicated and there’s going to be a complex array of what we know about any particular country and it citizens and a lot of that’s is based on what trickles down through new sources and social media. Often in this day and age, new sources that we want to trusted can no longer be trusted because they’re bought and manipulated by the billionaires and their Christofascist overlords. So the news is and isn’t showing us what’s going on or it’s conflicting information. I say this all the time I walk outside and I know all the horrible things that are going on in this country under the Trump fascist regime, but when I walk out the door, it’s the same as it ever was. It’s the place I grew up. Yes it’s modernized and changed over the decades, but people aren’t fighting in the streets everyone’s pleasant nothing of great import is going. Of course, I see the occasional Trump flag on somebody’s house or a bumper sticker on their car, but I’ve noticed I’m not seeing as many of them anymore.
Some days it feels like everything is an illusion and I know in my lifetime I can see how much things have changed for better and for worse went with the rise of global 24/7 news cycle as we become more aware we risk becoming more ignorant at the same time. Most folks don’t understand or know the complexities of the history. For instance, obviously I follow a lot of what’s been going on in the Ukraine for the past four years with the Russia's war of aggression and genocide of Ukrainians. I often see people questioning why Ukrainians speak Russian too well that is because the Ukrainian language has been banned 134 times over the centuries by Russia -- so when your native language is banned, you’re going to have to speak the language of the oppressor. Sometimes knowing the nuance and knowing the history and I’ve seen people take wild stabs in the dark. I’ll be like wow you could’ve just googled that first before you opened your mouth, but you didn’t and it shows.
Maybe it’s all perception and optics at the end of the day and believe me. I know that there is more than enough horrible things going, but if we hyper focus on all the bad that is going on, we’re often missing out on the good and the joy in the world and that is in high demand right now, and the thing that will keep us afloat and build our resilience and resistance, and will help us survive because if we roll over admit defeat and die, and just wailing in the streets (social media) that the world’s ending and nothing will ever get better, you aren’t contributing to surviving and building the resilience skills to do so.
We need to find our moments of joy and I think all the people that have traveled to the United States for the FIFA World Cup knowing full well how ICE is treating immigrants or foreign travelers across the board. I myself thought it was a horrible idea for people to travel here because it seemed like they were an imminent danger and yes, there have been some issues, but nowhere near as bad as anyone would have thought. I’m not ignorant to that, but I am so thankful and grateful for those that have shared their experiences in America as they’ve been so heartwarming in their Americana experiences. Some are even totally excited to be here for Independence Day.
What they reminded me of is that America always had a chance to be a better place and it can be and we have to fight for it and and sometimes fighting for it starts at home and in our daily lives in our practices and how we navigate the world. We’re not ignorant of such things that are going on. We’re not making excuses for it. We’re not going 'oh well it doesn’t affect me so I don’t care.' We’re surviving and becoming more resilient and joy is a blessed act of resistance so find your joy folks wherever you can.
Joy is resistance. Joy is defiance.