How others see us: Kibbutz Ketura

Maybe we saw a commercial or something in the news. We sew up the pieces we've collected and drape them on whoever could fit. We assume so much about a person's experience. Which a survival trait wired into us. The characters we imagine when we think about some group are familiar and we crave the familiar... but when we do not ask a person who they are first, we contribute to limiting the life of another human being.

Because this is not problem has some biological roots, it can't be expected to dissolve overnight. We must first see what we were blind to.

So instead of assuming Israelis thought I was anything and assuming that Israelis are anything, for this blog I asked what some of my Israelis classmates thought.

Here are some of the questions and responses:

1.) What is the first thing that you associate the word “American” with?

Loud, spoiled

2.) Do you think Americans exhibit some of the same traits?

 Excited (more so and a lot of the time)

Associations:

3.) America?​​​​Cheeseburger, Power

4.) American Men?​​​Suits, blonde

5.) American Women?​​​Feminism, Makeup

6.) American Children?​​​Blonde, fat

7.) American Students?​​​Well educated [Harvard, Brown, etc]

8.) American daily life?​​​Consumption, stressed(?)

9.) American Politics? ​​​Polarized, Sleazy, talk too much

10.) American Food?​​​McDonalds, Fattening

11.) Music/Movies/TV/Sports/Fashion?    Hollywood, Popular

}

12.) Where do you think these associations come from?

Media (pervasive in Israel)

13.) Have I met your expectations of an American? Why or why not?

No, you’re not loud

No, you seem calmer and more authentic

14.) Do you think Americans are privileged? Conferred dominance? Don’t have to worry about some things? And what?

Yes, The US, Israel and the rest of the west feel entitled

Yes, America has more opportunities (jobs, education, etc.) and Americans are treated with more respect abroad.

15.) What do you think Americans think of you? Of your country or culture?

The source of all their problems

They see us as their little brother, but they also pity us. Politicians in Israel look to America. When the Gaza strip was launching missiles at Israel, the US waved a finger at Israel for striking back. If Obama was here, having missiles launched at him, I do not think he think the same.

 And here are a few things classmates said outside of the interviews, which were poignant:

“Venezula IS America!”

When told about a sexist old (but still active in Pennsylvania) law, “Isn’t America supposed to be the greatest country in the world?!”

“American women are beautiful… but easy” 

“When I think of America, I think power.”

“American students are very diligent”

One Israeli couldn’t understand why someone would be upset about a friend of a friend dying suddenly.

When I said a lot of Americans think of Israelis as cool, quick, and tough; that when we see an Israeli, we assume that they have been in the army and could potentially kill us with one thumb, this Israeli said that response was cool, but at the same time she could see that the young Americans she had seen that reaction from didn’t fully understand the gravity of being a soldier.