The U.S. is influential here, but it's not the center of the Earth. It's probably most-closely analogous to a central generator in regards to the entertainment industry, where American pop and Hollywood blockbusters are generally regarded as “the biggest deal” amongst music and movies, respectively, in the UAE. Politically and financially, the U.S. is seen as important, but not necessarily driving the world.
That assessment might not be the least bit shocking to people back in the U.S. Why would anyone think that a small country in a different hemisphere would view U.S. culture with unparalleled significance? Well I did before I moved here – that's just always been my take on the world. And that perception hasn't necessarily changed.
At the same time, I came to this country with self-aware ownership of this belief, and highly sensitive to that when it's expressed, it will probably offend or disgust everyone else. And I've been keeping my eyes and ears peeled for signs of repulsion towards American ethnocentrism.
Like when my buddy the Indian employee at Starbucks asked where I was from, and I mindlessly told him “Baltimore,” which assumes 15-to-40-deep knowledge of American cities – a lot deeper than I could go in India.
Or when I sat at a bar with friends trumpeting the latest seasons of Community and Parks and Recreation (which Leslie and I joyously watched on Hulu) with the faint suggestion that other customers might want to eavesdrop, so that they could mentally note the programs and check them out later.
And when I read the review of Snoop Dogg's May concert in Abu Dhabi, I was expecting a more critical take on his brazen, “I will do whatever I want, including rap about getting laid while wearing traditional Emirati clothes” attitude.
Subtly or overtly, toward me or toward others, I haven't yet perceived much irritation about “the ugly American(s).”
The exception is in the sports sphere. Not only can I find no topic where the American world is more Pluto-like to the collective conscious of the UAE than sports, everyone seems to be touchy about the American viewpoint. We are seen as glib. Two recent articles I stumbled upon really got me thinking about this.
The first was a U.S. Open column in The National by Chuck Culpepper, who I believe is the same American who wrote this book. Now a columnist in the UAE, Chuck feels that it no longer makes sense to have three of the four golf majors within the U.S., and that there should be another to accompany the British Open. I believe there's an undercurrent in this article – the idea that Americans will fuss about the idea of relinquishing our stranglehold on major golf.
“Tennis, for one, lucked into something superior,” Culpepper writes. “Its majors came along organically in a four-country sprinkling across the world. Maybe golf approaches a time when the United States could take the creation it borrowed and perfected and magnified, and share it further. Parents always did say it was good to share.”
The second piece that caught my attention was on the new ESPN sub-site Grantland, the baby of sports-/pop culture-everyman columnist Bill Simmons. (Here's my elevator take on Grantland so far: It's striving to be something fresh in the sports blog world – a familiar new media style in that it's uninhibited by old-school journalism's self-imposed boundaries, but Grantland emphasizes storytelling and compelling writing more than other blogs. It doesn't have the anti-establishment tone or the tabloid-style gotchas, and it runs on the 24-hour news cycle moreso than the 30-second one. Most importantly to me, it's about loving sports way more than it's about hating them. I think it fills a nice niche, and I'm enjoying it immensely).
Given my new-found sensitivity to ugly American syndrome, this Grantland article written by Michael Schur and Nate DiMeo made me cringe a little, “a pair of red-blooded Americans” doing a stream-of-conscious observation about their first experience viewing critic. Prior to writing it, they did not know any of the rules or customs of cricket, and the intended audience is Americans in the same boat. These two find the game to be plodding and anti-climatic, with most of the entertainment stemming from its campiness.
The writers are completely upfront that the piece will offend cricket aficionados, but I would probably go further than that and say that it would reinforce perceptions of the dopey, parochial American sports fan. I really wanted to hate this article, but I ended up enjoying all 12,000 words of it. I've never thought that cricket was a well-conceived game compared to my favorites, and nothing I read in that article (or have seen in cricket-crazy UAE) changed my mind.
As for golf, Culpepper is correct - I would be upset if a major moved out of the country, even the PGA Championship. Certainly I see the issue with having 75% of the biggest events in a world sport in one country, but I think the U.S. does an incredible job of putting on these events, and I'd be suspicious about the quality of a new major springing up in Australia, or somewhere else.
I don't love fitting their idea of the ugly American sports fan, but I think that's just the way it is. I don't think our sports universe is perfect (the NBA's 24-second shot clock disfigures basketball, the MLB season has always been absurdly long, etc.). I also want to continue to give “non-American” sports a chance. Like, I'm starting to find rugby more compelling than I've ever given it credit.
But I do think the U.S. does sports the best in the world, by far, and I think I can make good arguments in support of this. The difficult question is which road I take when I get into sports conversations in the UAE...Which shows less character – perpetuating negative perceptions about American sports fans, like Schur and DiMeo probably did, or withholding sincere thoughts to avoid disharmony (not keepin' it real)?
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