Why Some "U.S. Americans" Scare Me
Whoo boy, where to begin? So last Friday was the Miss Teen USA competition. Now I don't watch that kind of program as I find it to be a mindless, sexist, exhibition of exploitation that is all too dominate in the present media culture. However I couldn't help but gasp when I read in the paper what one of the contestants, Miss South Carolina, said regarding education and other countries.
The melee occurred during the end of the show when the semi-finalists were asked to answer a "thought provoking final question" in order to determine who goes on and who goes home to eat mayonnaise out of a jar and then purge (or some shit like that). So, the bimbos, I mean "contestants", on stage pony up and wait to be called forward one by one. Once called they pull a judge's name out of a fish bowl (I kid you not) and then wait for the selected judge to deliver their question.
Well Miss South Carolina is up first. Her question is delivered by Judge #5, a 15 year old (I'm guessing here) girl with this super long Midwestern hair named Aimee Teegarden. BTW what kind of GD hill-billie meets hippie name is that?!? Poor kid, you know she secretly wants to be crowned Miss Teen USA herself... So Aimee asks the very blonde Miss South Carolina the following question:
Recent polls have shown a 5th of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world Map. Why do you think this is?
Fair enough, this is an important question. Personally I was shocked to know that ANYBODY in this country couldn't find it on a map. Our educational system is in worse shape than I had originally thought. Anyway, so Miss South Carolina shines her Plus White teeth at the audience and in her little Southern drawl rambles off the following:
I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh... I believe our education, such as South Africa and the Iraq everywhere such as... I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S., should help the U.S. er... should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children.
Sad to say that is EXACTLY what she said word for word, unabridged. Can we say, "What the fuck!"? OK, first this answer doesn't make any sense, I think what she was trying to get out was the first bit about people without maps and poor education. Secondly what does the education in South Africa and Iraq have to do with it? Excuse me "The Iraq" let's get our terms right. And how in Hell did the Asian countries suddenly become hotbeds of poor education? Miss South Carolina's attempt at being "worldly wise" made her appear to be about as topical as a fungal infection.
Clearly this girl is an airhead, the most substantial thing above her shoulders is the pound of lip gloss she's wearing. But what is truly frightening here is that she is representative of a LARGE demographic of people in the United States (particularly in the South and Midwest) that honestly believe that the U.S. is perfect and that any problems we have stem from the political and social situations in other countries. This is especially true if Africans, Arabs, and Asians are involved (Does that make them some kind of triple 'A' threat do you think?). Even more frightening is they believe the U.S. is and will "straighten" these other countries out and in doing so will build a better world for our children. Unless she is talking about the blonde haired, blue eyed Arian children of the world the U.S. isn't building a better anything right now, especially where the children are concerned. What this country is doing however is running itself into the ground by improperly educating its citizens to the point they grow up to be ignorant tubers that are uncultured and outclassed by their global counter parts.
Maybe I'm over reacting a bit here, but this is serious. Despite the incoherence of Miss South Carolina's answer (honestly are we really that surprised? She IS from South Carolina after all...) there were probably many "U.S. Americans" who agreed with the logic that South Africa and (the) Iraq had SOMETHING to do with why their fellow citizens can't find the country on a map. After all we have to keep finding justifications for why we are still involved in that Vietnam-esque fiasco which has claimed a third of our young people.
And let's not forget the subtle implications her statement makes, which ties other countries with a lack of knowledge to immigration from those countries into ours. The same people that support institutions like Miss teen USA are the same people that support this closed-minded opinion that illegal immigrants are flooding the country and ruining it. That we have had nothing to do with allowing them to get in and that the ultimate solution is to toss them out and then invade their country and "educate" them.
It makes me so damn angry and once again embarrassed to be a citizen of this country. I know there are well-educated, open-minded U.S. citizens out there. Unfortunately not enough of them are publicly visible. It's never the intelligent people that get the greatest press coverage, it's the stupid ones. Is it any wonder we are the laughing stock of the world? We're certainly not making efforts to appear better, Miss South Carolina is evidence of that. After all she is THE representative of teens from her region. That is both scary AND Trifling!
