United States Stereotypes

As we learned in class, people view countries in many different ways. Something I learned the other day in class was that very often, an individual can actually be more critical of his home than of others. For that reason, I have decided to shed some light on some of the stereotypes of my own country, The United States of America. I spent a little time trying to categorize how I should handle these various stereotypes within my country. The United States is an enormous land, with varying geographical and cultural differences. Because I live in the South, I will go ahead and start there. What are some of the first to come to mind? Redneck, moonshiner, racist, obese people, alcoholics, conservatives, uneducated, “lives in the sticks”, bible belt, football, southern hospitality, poor, white trash, and fanatically patriotic stick out most to me. There are positive associations as well, but I felt negatives would be more likely to be unknown to someone unfamiliar with my area. I do not mind saying that there is legitimacy to many of these stereotypes, and I can explain why. Obese is often used to speak in regards to the South because US statistics normally place states like Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi (close to the worst) as the most obese states in the country. Terms like rednecks, moonshiners, racists, and uneducated in my opinion have in a way latched onto the Southern states due to Civil War area when these attributes were much more prevalent. I don’t at all believe any of these are totally justifiable to set on the South because they are all prevalent and possible in all areas. It is factual that southern states have a tendency to vote in a conservative manner during elections, so I can see where that would come from. As for being ultra patriotic, I would definitely have to agree. Things like shouting Merica’ as an appropriate response to anything, chanting USA, wearing boots and any form of American flag attire to school and or weekend function, and hearing the national anthem are common occurrences where I come from. Other things like the bible belt, popularity of football, and Southern hospitality are other accurate stereotypes based on my observations. Enough talking about my area! Let’s move onto some popular stereotypes for the North. Rich folk, liberal, city boy, proper, cold, immigrants, impatient, unfriendly, unaccommodating, baseball, greedy, materialistic, everyone talks like Jersey shore, annoying accents, and non religious. Now I want to preface this by stating these are not necessarily factual, but are just things I’ve head on the media and from my friends in Tennessee as I’ve grown up. There are a few that stick out to me that seem to be associated mostly because of times like the industrial revolution and the Civil War. Things like greedy, Rich, and proper were probably assumed because lots of business and industry first began booming in the Northern areas. A few that I believe to be actually apart of the culture of the North include