Artwork by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
The novel The Ugly American, by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer, was an absolute sensation when it came out in 1958. The book was a series of vignettes detailing the general contempt with which American diplomats and citizens treated indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. The term “ugly American” originally defined the pretentious, rude, and arrogant behaviors Americans tend to display in foreign countries, but it’s come to mean much more than that. This phrase can now be expanded to describe these behaviors by America towards other, usually less fortunate, Americans.
Anyone who’s been abroad has seen a certain type of U.S. tourist acting in a boorish and demeaning manner to people trying to serve them, accommodate them, or guide them. While vacationing in Mexico a few years ago, I witnessed a group of cruise ship patrons on a snorkeling trip begin screaming at the native tour guide for pitchers of beer at nine in the morning. Screaming at them. The customers eventually got their way and proceeded to get stinking drunk before snorkeling. God bless America. I suppose this could be a type of American exceptionalism, an example of that egocentrism found only in the land of the free.
It’s quite popular for Americans to visit all-inclusive resorts while vacationing in foreign countries, which saves them the inconvenience of having to meet any of the residents or experience any discomforting aspects of a foreign culture. All their meals, entertainment, and lodgings are contained within their vacation compounds; they don’t have to worry about meeting anyone except other Americans. To be at a Caribbean or Mexican all-inclusive is not unlike vacationing in Florida—except for the lack of Disney cultural icons—and guns.
But the ugly American is transforming. We’ve seen this sort of behavior abroad (so much so it’s become cliched), but now we’re seeing it at home. He—or she (Hello, Karen)—has gone domestic. Ugly Americans are now exercising their guaranteed freedom to be ugly to anyone anywhere. They seem to feel it’s their constitutional right to demand what they want, whenever and however they want it. We’re seeing it more frequently in the lower forty-eight: a restaurant patron screaming at a hapless waiter, a passenger reviling and perhaps assaulting a flight attendant, or a customer striking a store worker for insisting they follow company rules and wear a mask.
These “ugly” domestic behaviors began surging during the pandemic. Assaults on airline attendants skyrocketed during this time. An infamous YouTube of a group of customers assaulting a New York City restaurant hostess after she told them they had to wait for a table went viral. These instances of incivility (to understate it) seemed to around the CDC mandate to wearing masks.
Some citizens, egged on by anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, and some news outlets, decided that their right to free expression entitled them to ignore the recommendations of the C.D.C. They said no to protective masks and social distancing. Encouraged by our former president, they even began to revile the reputation of Dr. Anthony Fauci, our leading epidemiologist, instead relying on the advice of quacks and Fox News anchors—whose medical credentials are impeccable. Our ex-president even suggested that drinking bleach or illuminating our internal organs would cure Covid.
That such advice—and vitriolic histrionics—have come from our highest levels of government should come as no surprise. Republican legislators been incorporating aspects of the ugly American sensibility into public policy for some time now.
Over the past few years, statehouses across the country have been passing voter laws designed to “protect” the integrity of our elections. The reality is that they limit voter access. With unfounded and unverified cries of voter fraud (not unlike the boy who cried wolf), Republicans in many states have succeeded in limiting voter access to young people, people of color, and the handicapped. This is probably the ugliest thing one could do to a fellow American.
In an even uglier development, as recently reported in The Guardian, the Republican Party allegedly has recently recruited and trained a grassroots army to monitor and dispute election results. Poll workers, attorneys, and district attorneys sympathetic to the misbegotten idea that the 2020 election was stolen are prepared to dispute election results in Democratic-leaning precincts. Local election official races have also been stacked with pro-Trump leaning candidates who could allegedly dispute unfavorable poll results. Remember Donald Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which he asked for 11,780 votes? (NYTimes) Specifically? That seems to be the new Republican game plan. So, in other words, these government workers are prepared to harass, demean, and bully voters in very ugly ways in what they hope they will an ugly win. A steal. Sound familiar?
Another recent tendency of Republican-controlled state governments has been to hamstring our public schools. Under the rallying cry of Critical Race Theory (a paper tiger if there ever was one), some states have passed draconian legislation forbidding public schools from implementing certain curricula that details the history of slavery, Reconstruction, lynchings, or the Civil Rights Movement. They seem to be worried about white students feeling guilty and uncomfortable about the crimes of their forebears—not unlike an American tourist in a Mexican open-air market. Florida has gone so far as to ban books like The Bluest Eye and Beloved by Toni Morrison and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. God forbid our children should be exposed to other cultures and lifestyles.
These ugly American legislators are also proposing laws to limit reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and to maintain our present levels of income equality. They obviously despise those other Americans who are not like them, so they’re attempting to control them, silence them, and exclude them.
These Ugly Americans—as we know them today—are still building walls, not only along the border, but around their hearts (wherever they are) and their minds (ditto). Like the all-inclusive resorts that are so popular in foreign countries, they seek to exist in closed and insular communities and to eliminate any threats (or even discomforts) to their own egocentric needs. And things are going to get even uglier before they’re done.