Before I arrived in London, I assumed that my identity as an American would cause conflict and result in people looking down on and judging me. I was warned that the British like to casually talk about politics in their everyday life. It is not as taboo or viewed as divisive as it is for Americans. As a result, I also assumed I would get a lot of questions about American politics. Since I studied through an American study abroad program instead of a university, I did not get to interact with locals as much as I would have liked to, except for my coworkers at my internship. While my coworkers discussed their personal lives at times they never discussed politics. Instead of being met with disdain, one coworker even got excited when she found out I was American and started talking about how she has fond memories of spending time with her American cousins on a beach in Los Angeles.
I did however have an interesting conversation with a barista at the checkout counter that made me reflect on the differences between America and the UK, as well as my identity as an American. One nice lady that worked at a café asked me at the checkout counter if I preferred America and UK. I told her that there were different aspects of both that I liked, but that I would miss the UK when I left, especially the superior and much more sophisticated public transportation system. She said she would choose America even though she has never been and doesn’t know a lot about it. She then said she would be nervous and asked me if it was dangerous in America. I responded that some places are more dangerous than others and that the cities tend to have higher crime rates. This questions reminded me of how when I visited Scotland a man that worked at a restaurant asked me what was going on with all the mass shootings in America and if we were alright.
I thought this question was interesting because Americans tend to view other countries as more dangerous and high risk, but we don’t usually think about what ways our country may be viewed as less safe, especially to foreigners. We don’t think about how other countries are concerned about our well being. In London, the main thing you have to be concerned about is being robbed. I always makes sure I am alert and paying attention to my surroundings, but I have felt safer walking around London at night than I ever have walking around anywhere in America at night. Theft makes up a majority of the crime in London due to strict laws about carrying around weapons. In America, our gun laws are very different from the UK, where civilians aren’t allowed to have guns and police are only seen with guns if they are guarding an important monument. As the Scottish man’s question illuminated, people in Europe find it bizarre, scary, and concerning that shootings are so commonplace in America. They don’t except it as a normal part of life. I’m not trying to argue that we should be more like the UK and that we should ban guns, but I think it shows how identity impacts our interactions and how we experience the world. I think I realized from my experience abroad is that everyone romanticizes and views other countries as more exciting. In addition, by looking at how things are done and the way things are in other countries, we realize there are different ways to live our lives and that certain things shouldn’t just be accepted as being the way things are because it’s not necessarily like that everywhere.