Granada, Spain. From the vantage of Europe, American politics seems like the circus -- many exciting activities being played out under the big top, activities that have little bearing upon the social and economic realities most Americans confront each and every day. I've been traveling for two weeks first in Switzerland and then in Spain and have been struck by the almost idiotic recent play of American politics.
Anthropologists like me are used to displacement. We usually travel great distances, often to remote spaces, to learn about the life ways of people who are usually very different from us. Traveling gives us a relatively critical vantage from which the life ways of home are brought into clearer resolution. That resolution enables us to engage in one of our most important task -- cultural critique or using our experience among others to see more clearly what makes our society work.
In the spirit of cultural critique, my European trip has underscored a number of themes usually submerged in everyday political debate.
- Race and Ethnicity. No one in American politics wants to talk overtly about race or ethnicity. Visiting Switzerland and Spain reconfirms the centrality of race -- and yes, racism, to American social life and to American politics. Although Switzerland and Spain have their fare share of xenophobic racism -- anti-immigrant sentiments against Africans and Middle Easterners -- it is truly impressive to see just how inclusive everyday social relations have become in these countries. In short, I've noticed a profound degree of racial and ethnic integration. Although there is European political opposition to this kind of integration, there seems to be a groundswell of social change that may well be transformative. In the United States, many politicians, mostly Republicans and Tea Party members are covertly racist, playing on fears of crime, racial otherness, and ethnic difference. It is not surprising then that the social and economic policies advocated by Republican candidates -- anti-immigration measures, the elimination of Medicare and Medicaid -- as we know them -- disproportionately impact the most dispossessed members of American society -- immigrants and African-Americans -- especially the elderly in those categories.