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.