Racism Today

Anti-Americanism 'feels like racism'
Sunday, 16 April 2006,


From the UK

As a US citizen living in London, Christian Cox says she is shocked at the amount of abuse she receives because of her nationality. Ms Cox says she lowers her voice on the Tube to avoid confrontation.

She says the level of anti-Americanism she has experienced "feels like a kind of racism". "I don't want anyone to feel sorry for Americans, or me, I just want people to realise that we are dealing with hatred too," she says.

Typical British pub banter is one thing, says Christian Cox, but the "pure hatred" she says is directed at her for being American is really starting to wear her down. The former model moved to London a year ago, where she is setting up her own business, and has been surprised at how some people have reacted to her nationality.

Ms Cox, 29, says she has been called, among other things, "terrorist", "scum", "low life", and feels that she is constantly being held to account for the actions of President Bush and for US foreign policy.

This is despite the fact that she doesn't agree with the war in Iraq and didn't vote for Bush. However she adds: "Bush is our leader and I respect that. It's a bit like the way you feel about your father.

You don't always agree with him, but you would defend him." She has travelled widely in other parts of Europe, Mexico, Canada and Australia but says this is the first time her pride in her country has been challenged in such a vitriolic way. "People would make jokes about Americans but I didn't experience the pure hatred I have had since I came to live here.

"I appreciate that British people often don't understand why I have so much pride, they think it's brainwashing. "And I do think some people in the US need to be more educated about what's going on in the world. "But some people just fly off the handle without even talking to me - it's as if they had been waiting to run into an American all day to let their feelings out," she says.

To avoid confrontations she says she lowers her voice on the Underground and in pubs. But in one incident an older man asked her directly if she was American. "When I said yes he said: 'I just want you to know that I think you are the poorest people I have ever met in my life' - meaning we were low-life.

"I said I was sorry he felt that way, but that I disagreed." The man started shouting obscenities at her group. The row developed into a brawl and Ms Cox suffered a black eye as she tried to pull two people apart. "After that I cried for two days, then booked a flight back to the States. I felt so hated, I needed to be with people who loved me."

Some friends now advise her to tell people she is Canadian, to deflect potential abuse, an option she calls "sad". 'Culture shock' However it is advice that teacher Francesca Terry, 28, who grew up in Seattle, recognises. She has lived in London for four years and is married with a daughter. "I was aware before I moved here that when you travelled abroad it was always better to say you were Canadian if you could get away with it.

But we treated it more like a joke." She was subjected to verbal abuse in the first year or so in Britain, but things calmed down particularly when she had her daughter and stopped going out to pubs so much. "When I first came here it was part of the culture shock. I felt really naive, I had thought I would go unnoticed here. "I would go out and I'd just get picked on by people taking pot shots. I just didn't speak when we went out.

What shocked me was that people would just say the rudest comments." But she adds that she has a close group of girlfriends from the US, many of whom say they have not had similar experiences. She says she is still cautious when she's out and about: "If people ask where I'm from I say 'the States, but the part near Canada'."

"I feel bad about saying that, but it is out of a kind of guilt, I just don't want to get into it with people. When I do, I tell them these are not my choices. I understand my president makes bad decisions, but that's not me."

The US embassy in London declined to comment on the story.