Since the early days of this country one of the popular themes for entertainment was to portray Americans travelling abroad among natives in strange lands. Americans are always pictured as being smarter and taller and better looking than the locals, always better educated, and always having the true grasp of the situation at hand. The natives on the other hand were always portrayed as being more primative, sometimes shorter and fatter, and maybe missing a few teeth, speaking poor english. Variations on this have been popular since Sam Clemens, and run on through to Hope and Crosbys Road To series of films.

In the past few months I've spent time in Manhattan, and at Disney World. Surrounded by cultures that are better educated than us. People that are taller. Have better healthcare. That are multilingual. 

Standing among short, fat, poorly educated Americans.

It's the same old joke.

 

But now it's on us.  

 

 

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