are you a redneck ?

No offence to anyone that identifies with the word “redneck”, this isn’t an attack on a certain sect or kind of people – rather it is a clarification that is long due. Being more of a global citizen than anything else, I have come across a plethora of people. A very common sentiment most people who aren’t from the USA share is the presence of apparent ignorance in this society, bluntly – people think US citizens are stupid. Having grown up in a culture that stressed the importance of intellect to be prime, I was to an extent a part of that group that was “judgemental” and viewed the USA as a land of economic plenty but intellectual immaturity. People in the US were viewed as having few morals if any, a lot of money, had no work ethic, drank a lot and essentially were a hedonistic brigade of individualistic partiers. A lot of this rather warped and unrealistic view was a creation of Hollywood mixed with rather low interaction that people outside the USA had with common middle class citizens of this country. Therefore it had the same effect as when some of my friends watched Van Wilder and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and thought they knew all there was to know about India. In the absence of a realistic reference plane, media created stereotypes were all we had to create the whole culture of a people – a cardinal sin in my book.
Having had the opportunity to interact with people of over 30 different countries and get access to media and resources which were more apt in revealing the empirical truth about different cultures, a vast paradigm change has taken place in my attitudes. Ignorance knows no color, race, gender, sexual orientation, class, age or nationality. Essentially what that amounts to is – people in the USA aren’t exclusively oriented to acts of stupidity or ignorance and it would be very unfair to judge them in such light, similar to the fact that Africans aren’t all living in utter poverty and Indians don’t own elephants as pets and Arabs don’t fly around on carpets and blow each other up.
Having had the opportunity to travel and listen to the stories of people that have traveled , I have assembled some good examples of human ignorance , which are diverse and shocking in their quaint little way .These conversations are real and happened almost exactly as I am putting them down –
(Keeping in mind the rather monolingual majority here, I have taken the liberty to translate them from the language I heard it, they have a much better effect when heard in their parent language)

Heard on a bus in northern India – (two men talking)

Man 1 - “ You know women in the USA just want to have sex with men all day , and all the men want to do is drink and make money”
Man 2 – “Where did you learn that ?”
Man 1 – “From Baywatch, it’s the real USA”
Man 2– “Wow, what about God ?”
Man 1- “Money , that’s their God”

Singapore Airport – (Mother talking to her teenage son)
Mother – “Stay away from the Chinese”
Son – “Why?”
Mother – “They are dirty and they all have SARS”
Son- “Whats that ?”
Mother – “It’s a kind of Cancer, kills you in a week”

Amsterdam – ( I am in a chocolate shop at the airport)
Me – “How much are the Cadbury Fruit and Nuts?”
Man at the store says the price and then – “Are you Lebanese?”
Me – “No I am Indian”
Man – “No way, you’re too tall and light eyes. You must be a royal family kid or something, I’ve seen the movies, you guys are little and skinny.”
Me – “I am middle class, nothing royal”
Man – “You must have grown up in some other country then, Your English is really good, can’t be Indian”

Tanzania – Open Market near Serengeti National Park
(Two men talking)
Man 1 – “I am sick of this, let’s turn Christian”
Man 2 – “Why? What’s that going to do?”
Man 1- “Don’t you see all these people from the West, they are all Christian and all rich. Once we are Christians we can move to their country and life will be great.”
Man 2 – “Really, well I got to ask my wife about it, how expensive is it?”

France, Paris Airport (I am wearing a 4th of July shirt and reading ; a woman comes and sits next to me)
Woman – “Excuse me , Are you American ?”
Woman (without letting me answer) – “How could you send all those innocent men to their death in Iraq?”
Woman – “Don’t you care about anything ? Typical American - rich, ignorant and self absorbed”
Me – “I am not an American, I am Indian”
Woman – “Oh, well, I am sorry, how is it like living in a reservation?”

These are just a few examples from the countless others that I can think off. Generalizing the mental ability or choices of a population based on media or dissent with the actions of the government is rather immature. Most times the only aspect differentiating the people who know from the ones who don’t is choice. It is very easy to use “I grew up in a small town around people who thought like me”, but that reason doesn’t hold in the light of hundreds of people that grow up in these small towns and yet summon the ability to stretch their social realities to allow room for the difference that exists in the world. The assumption that people in bigger cities are more “liberal” and open minded is a rather flimsy one . Some of the worst racial clashes in USA have been in its biggest cities , be it LA or Birmingham. A very good example of this is my good friend Jessica Hicks (who has a rather vulnerable last name and is the brunt of many a joke). She grew up in a small town which was predominantly similar in lifestyles and attitudes and yet she is one of the most accepting and understanding people I have ever known. A model of what a person can accomplish if they feel the need to respect all that is around them. On the flipside I have friends in India who grew up in cities of millions of people and still live with the image of the USA as a large Disneyland full of hordes of strippers.
Most people react negatively towards something they don’t understand. Fear is born out of a person’s inability to fully grasp the need for differences. Linearity and social singularity are concepts which tend to fragment the very fabric of a nations community. The root of the problem lies not in the identification of the difference, but in understanding it. Walking on the thin line between “all people are equal” and “We are just too different”, isn’t an easy endeavor. Inherently humans love classifying and categorizing. This aspect of problem solving has proved to be our poisoned chalice. Getting out of a state where ignorance can be understood in its deepest sense, has to be advocated from within rather than from “without” and it has to be done without categorizing and grouping each other and in the process reducing a complex individual to a single attribute.
Coming back to my initial argument about ignorance and the word “redneck” – which for a lot of people in this society has a negative connotation and usually pertains to an individual with a low ability to understand and deduce and accept civilized and diverse existence. However , this concept of an individual that stands against social evolution , against growth , against the whole idea of respect and acceptance of the cultural flux is universal and a part of every nations reality. These individuals in reality are the greatest roadblocks to a world order of peace and justice.
No one benefits in a system which bases its fundamentals on conflict born out of fear. We owe it to ourselves, to respect what we have around, even if we do not agree with it, as that is the greatest sign of social maturity. Next time before judging a person , try and hear their story – hear their fears, where they come from and most importantly why they think the way they do , because whether you like it or know it , even as you judge them , they judge you.