Study With Me : American Studies Course
American Studies Course
Duration : 7 meetings with one final examination
Credits : 1,5 credits
I took American Studies Course none other than to fill my credits. The main object for the course was United States of America. I would like to specify that the term American or America refer to the continent not just the United States of America. However, since learning other countries and its culture will take more than 7 weeks, it was decided that students will only learn the United States of America history and its people.
At first, I do not have massive expectation towards the course since it was not taught by an American lecture. However, after taking it, the experience was refreshing and thought-provoking. It offers cross-cultural understanding between the US and the Indonesian culture.
The course also offers different lenses to view the US cultural and political situation. As a background, I am self-identified as a libertarian. Although, if I would like to specify, I agree with majority of anarcho-capitalism ideas and views. However, the way the course was presented, was leaning towards group thinking, something I tend to disagree with. So after my first attendance, I knew instantly that I have to strip my political views and the lenses I previously have.We will go further with that later.
During the second to the seventh week, we got to learn about : history behind the finding of America, thanksgiving, slavery, language and accents, cultural appropriation, racial problems, higher education in the united states, gender issues and popular culture. Everything in this course was presented with something I call a plot twist since it sometimes contain personal views towards certain administrative.
In this article, I will be dividing into several chapters based on what I learn from my notes. I also write this to remember things I learn during the course. I hope we can learn together from this. To my fellow American, please correct me if I am mistaken, or teach me something in the comment section.
First week
Topic : Class expectations and rules
Status : Absent
Second Week
Topic : Nation in the Making
Status : Present
During this week, students were learning about the history behind America as continent and how it was referred as the New World, Columbus and the virgin island, and how Natives American views Christopher Columbus. I vaguely remember if it was this week we touched on declaration of Independence. If yes, we discussed Thomas Jefferson who said “ All men are equal.”
My commentary :
First, the class was started by a group presentation which presented a brief history about the discovery of America as a continent. Then after, the lecture started showing several slides about the voyages and the motives behind European exploration which is “ gold, glory and gospels.”
It moved on to Columbus notes on how he referred “ natives as “savages”. The class started to form a disgust towards him. There was also a remark, loosely quoted “ it might have been about gold instead gospels.”
Then the class touched on declaration of independence. It was emphasizing on “ all men are equal” and how it only refers to(white) men while excluding women, natives, and etc. So, I raised my hands asking,
“ How do you know that Thomas Jefferson did not think about women, natives and etc. Because men from that sentence is the plural word for “ man” which means a person regardless sex or age?”
The answer was “ we can infer from the execution that it excludes women and natives”
Then the class started becoming teary after watching the video about Natives American describing about Columbus. Perhaps they shared the same sentiment with the natives because Indonesia was colonized by some European nations and one Asian nation which left agonizing memory. But the reality today, we might have forgotten about it.
“ Columbus got lost.” - that was the main idea that students including myself got from the class. Along with “ all men are (not) equal” as the idea that men as (human, person). But I don’t know if Thomas Jefferson only wrote it for men as in specific to male person with he as the preferred pronoun.
Third Week
Topic : Being American
Sub topic : American dreams & American culture
Status : Present
As usual the class started with presentation from groups. This week was one of my favorite class because we get to discuss, Are you American? What makes you think you are American? I have asked similar question during my freshman year before even taking this course. However, I still don’t find the answer to that question since I think it is twisted like a ball of yarn.
There were several questions I manage to pen down such as :
- What makes an American Proud?
- Why have a lot of people come to the USA?
- What is American Culture?
* If you identify yourself as American, feel free to answer those questions.
The class was also mentioning about American Dreams. There were several key points which I noted such as : upward mobility, government must protect its citizen to pursue their fullest potentials, equality, freedom, prosperity, and opportunity. I think these points are things which distinguish United States of America from other countries in the world.
My commentary
I started to disagree more when I see the sentence “ The government must protect its citizen to pursue their fullest potentials”. Why can’t we be responsible for ourself? That alone contradicts with the rights to bear arm. Why should we rely to the government when they can’t even ensure our safety? Who are the government? According to me, they are the people we elect and appoint to work for the us; the citizen. How do we pay the government? From our taxes. And what does the government do? I’ll leave it to you to answer.
This particular sub topic reminds me of the current USA political and cultural situation. America is the land of gold and freedom. I will not deny that fact. However, I have been seeing some people wanting to move outside the USA because they think the country is hostile and unsafe. On the contrary, There are people who move to the USA because they can’t find freedom in their country. Where on earth if not in the USA and perhaps some European countries, you can be gay, muslim (christian, etc)and accepted?
From my opinion, it is easy for American citizen to move anywhere. That is because if you are an expat, the laws in your current country does not affect you. Unless some apparent things such as drunk driving, stealing but never about identity. On the contrary, people in some countries are dealing with identity issues. For instance, in some countries Jewish are not able to practice their faith openly or LGBTQ's person is not open to express themselves and unite in a sacred union. Instead, they are living in fear.
As we touch American culture, students including myself were taught about cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. I think there is a thin line between those two. Additionally, from my notes, it said that cultural appropriation is when we claim it as our culture. Moreover,this has been recurrent topic in our mass media and social media within the American society.
On the contrary, Indonesia does not have this problems even it has hundreds different cultures within the nation. For instance, if you ask me, What do I think about a foreigner who wears Indonesian traditional clothing? That’s fine. I don’t have a problem.
I still have this unanswered question. “ Why do American fuss about that?” I remembered seeing a girl who wears traditional Chinese garment to her prom. It sparked controversy because she didn’t belong to the culture. But I don’t think she claims it as her culture by saying “ This is my culture” or something in that sentence.
So I asked the class “ What about Indonesian who celebrate Halloween or valentine’s day?” these aren’t Indonesian culture. There was no answer.
This was one of the most interesting class I have among all the other classes. Another thing about the class was how it praised the previous president and its administrative. It also made several remarks about the current administration. In my opinion, each administration has its positive and negative points. I don’t think it’s good to think one is better than another objectively.
Below is the picture from my own notes. I will be coming with fourth week and so on in the next part. Feel free to add something or answer my question.
Disclaimer : I edit this section to add or to correct my terms.
wah, hebat ni si Non, jadi agak ngiri saya ha..ha..! Btw ambil kursus atau sekolahnya di mana Non?
Belajar budaya bangsa lain saya rasa memang perlu, supaya pikiran kita terbuka. Secara tidak sadar budaya USA sudah merasuk kedalam kehidupan sehari-hari bangsa Indonesia. Itulah hebatnya mereka, dari invasi budaya, masuklah invasi produk mereka seperti Mc Donald dll.
Kalau Thomas Jefferson saya juga kagum dengan beliau, sebenarnya dia itu orang yang humanis tapi sayang dia lahir dijaman yang salah. Penelitian terbaru, menunjukan bahwa Thomas Jefferson memiliki anak dari budaknya yang berkulit hitam juga beliau baru mebebaskan para budaknya ketika menjelang kematiannya. Kalau nggak salah si TJ ini juga bikin bible versinya sendiri ya? Sebetulnya setahun yang lalu ada buku biografy dari si TJ ini di acara pameran buku, agak nyesel saya nggak beli.
Semangat ya.
Iya bener, jaman sekarang perangnya perang budaya. Nggak cuma USA aja tapi korea, china, jepang, dll :D semua pada berebut hegemoni.
Wah kalau tentang penelitian terbaru tentang TJ saya malah belum baca. Menariknya di kelas, argumen nya lebih tentang bagaiman si TJ ini tidak memperhatikan kaum wanita dan native american. Mungkin karena tutornya juga wanita hehe tapi di awal dia sudah bilang kalau mungkin yang lecture orang lain perspective nya bisa juga berbeda hehe
IMHO, mungkin pada waktu itu TJ sudah berpikir luas, cuma beliau nggak berani mengungkapkannya kalau istilah men seharusnya bisa ditafsirkan mengacu pada semua orang.
Saya pernah melihat film biografi Lyncoln, ada perbedaan dan perdebatan di konggres antara everyone is equal dan everyone equal before the law. Akhirnya pihak humanis di konggres mengalah menggunakan istilah everyone equal before the law supaya amanden ke 13 bisa diterima semua anggota kongres.
Nah itu, makanya saya tanya ke lecture nya. darimana anda tahu kalu TJ tidak memperhatikan wanita dan native american. dia jawabnya, kita bisa menafsirkan dari proses eksekusi saat ini.Tapi tidak menambahkan informasi kalau ada revisi antara everyone is equal dan everyone equal before the law.
"Topic : Class expectations and rules
Status : Absent"
Well, I would say, that was rather American of you! ;-) For instance, on July 4th, 1776, didn't Thomas Jefferson and friends write 'an excuse for not attending' to King George III and his parliament?
But seriously, part of American culture has always, at least in our own self-perception, been about our uncompromising pursuit of freedom ... I believe this sentiment was much stronger before the 20th Century, whereas it seems to me, since the end of the second world war, uncompromising pursuit of consumerist status and material comfort has overcome the need for freedom, self-reliance, and the immense personal responsibilities that come with liberty.
In the context of the first Ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, our Bill of Rights written in 1789, informs Americans that the chief role of a government in a constitutional democracy, is to protect the people from tyranny, already well-recognized at the time of its writing, how government has a tendency to attract certain individuals who only wish to usurp liberty from other individuals, and thus the constitution itself, speaks strongly to the paradoxical need of government to protect individuals from the government itself.
Now that 'the frontiers have been conquered', abundant resources exploited, we are settling into a more sedentary mode of existence, as if, freedom itself is a luxury only available to societies that can afford it, and for about half a century (not surprisingly) concurring with US Peak Oil production, the US has spent its capital (natural resources and a workforce that has bona fide incentives to devote their lives to the labor required) needed to sustain a high level of freedom and liberty.
Interestingly, you mention Social Mobility, and within my lifetime, it has become increasingly apparent if not downright ironic, that China has surpassed the US in upward mobility due to China's economic growth rate in recent years peaking around 8% and in 'bad years' at least 4%. Whereas, the US 'economic growth' has more accurately been merely inflation caused by over a decade of Quantitative Easing. In other words, the only remaining individuals in the US experiencing social upward mobility are those 'closest to the fiat printer' ...
It has been the job of our mass media, and sadly also of our education system as of late, to distract us from these palpable observations, with all sorts of tactics, including 'divide and conquer' those most likely to take exception to these matters that are limiting our personal freedoms and upward social mobility, such as, by assigning an enemy among us, McCarthyist 'Cold War', 'War on Drugs' ... and now an Intersectionalist 'War on the Patriarchy'.
I am heartened to hear persons like yourself have a keen view on Group-think as you stated, and have a strong notion that the Intersectionalist form of Collectivism is merely a distraction away from personal freedom, self-reliance, and the immense personal responsibilities that necessarily come with liberty.