Yes, I am proud to be an American.

Times must be hard for poets, really. Instead of reading and reciting poetry, many people read the latest bestsellers by J. K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, and James Patterson. I am not a huge fan of poetry, but I have a respect for it as I had a very traditional K-12 education. To get into the news, it seems like a poet has to cause some kind of controversy.

At the center of a relatively new but old controversy is Maya Angelou. Ms. Angelou is a poet who has links to the American Civil Rights Movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou). Probably the moment most Americans remember seeing her was during her recitation of her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. Since then, many people probably have not heard as much about her, but she has popped up again in the midst of something I read about a month ago.

Ms. Angelou made the following comment after Senator Obama was elected:

ANGELOU: I realized almost within a minute, I don't have to apologize for my country when I'm abroad. I can say, "I belong to a great country," and there are Europeans who say, "Aren't you glad to be here in France where we don't have the racism you live under? Aren't you glad you're here in Britain?" I mean, I've been on the defensive so long. But this time I can say, "I am an American, look at us, look at what we've just achieved." It is amazing. (Source: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_110708/content/01125113.guest.html)

This made me cringe that Americans were being made to feel as if we were such a racist country. Surely, our country is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that Europe has it no better in terms of race relations. This made me want to do some research on race relations in France and Britain to discover if there was any empirical or anecdotal evidence to refute Ms. Angelou’s experiences in Europe.
I decided to start with France. It is a long-established country. So, surely, it has fixed this racism problem and is setting the bar for us here. Sadly, this is not the case. The Associated Press had an article about how the first lady of France wants her country to be more progressive in its treatment of minorities and points out the fact that many minorities are invisible in politics (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/11/10/2008-11-10_bruni_says_its_time_to_eliminate_racism_.html). Time has even published an article about how racist dialogue is becoming more common in France (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1574817,00.html). NPR even had an article about how previous riots in immigrant communities in the country have been caused by racism as well (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5004897). Surely, France is a great country in all respects, but it also has not fixed the racism issue and is not a shining beacon of hope for us to aspire to.

Britain is the other country Ms. Angelou mentioned. Many of our customs and laws are based upon Britain’s because we used to be a colony of that country. At least that is the story until historical revisionists yet again try to change fact to suit their immediate needs. But, back to the diatribe at hand. In 2002, the BBC reported that racism is a problem in Britain and that 44% of citizens thought that immigration had damaged the country in the last 50 years (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2002/race/1998159.stm). The country also has a disparity in the success of minority groups when compared to whites (http://www.caribvoice.org/Features/racism.html). Surely, this cannot be the great example Ms. Angelou meant to imply?

Other European countries, like the Netherlands, have also had issues with racism; but that is a discussion for another day. Britain and France are great countries, and the USA is also a great country. I am proud to be an American. Equality is a good goal, but there are many different ways to achieve it. Britain, France, and the USA all are not perfect countries. We are all trying to make our homes better places. I just wish that more Americans like Ms. Angelou would get her facts straight before disparaging her home country.