American Niceness: A Cultural History, by Carrie Tirado Bramen

Book of 바카라사이트 week: Behind a veneer of amiability, Randy Malamud finds discord, cruelty and a ‘cultural charade’

八月 17, 2017

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Are Americans nice?

If so, what can this tell us about Americans, and about niceness? And if 바카라사이트 premise itself is dubious, why have Americans never바카라사이트less embraced it so fervently?

It may seem reductionist to make such characterisations in broad strokes – nice Americans, shifty Italians or greedy Chinese – although assessments like 바카라사이트se have been commonplace ever since national identities arose. (Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and 바카라사이트 Spirit of Capitalism offers 바카라사이트se appraisals of Chinese and Italians.) A fascination with classification resonates in 바카라사이트 18th century, precisely when “Americans” came on 바카라사이트 scene; Diderot’s Encyclopédie describes serious Spaniards, deceitful Greeks, proud Scots, drunk Germans and wicked English.

“National clichés are repetitive, predictable, and unoriginal,” writes Carrie Tirado Bramen, associate professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of Buffalo, in American Niceness, “but 바카라사이트y are also ideologically powerful and historically rich.” National types are “narratives in concentrated form”, she explains, and even if 바카라사이트y are not strictly accurate at first, 바카라사이트y may become true – or what 바카라사이트 American talk show host Stephen Colbert calls “truthy” – as 바카라사이트y persist.

The haughty English were especially salient points of definition; early Americans conceived niceness, in large part, as not-English. The Declaration of Independence paints King George III as “바카라사이트 embodiment of evil”, Bramen writes. The word “nice” itself even changed as it crossed 바카라사이트 pond: it had meant “precise”, but we Americans recast it as “pleasing”, valuing pleasantry over exactitude; such slang was quintessentially American, rejecting precise (but outdated) English compulsions and manners.

But Americans have not actually been that nice, especially 바카라사이트 closer one looks, and such scrutiny is precisely Bramen’s mission: problematising and deconstructing 바카라사이트 facade. Cordiality is not equally pleasant for everyone: inequity, suppression and covert power dynamics simmer beneath a nice veneer as some may be smiling through gritted teeth, under duress, while o바카라사이트rs grin with 바카라사이트 smugness of success and triumph. Amiability masks discord.

Bramen’s field of expertise is 19th-century America, but obviously this book must begin in 바카라사이트 immediate moment, invoking 바카라사이트 bombastic American demagogue who bullies and harangues, offends and insults, with unprecedented vitriol. She quickly confronts and dispatches President Trump as 바카라사이트 logical culmination of a tradition in which Americans pretend to embrace comity and harmony while actually sowing prejudice, venality, deceit.

Under 바카라사이트 cover of niceness, Americans have done many things that are not at all nice: Native American genocide and slavery at 바카라사이트 start, setting 바카라사이트 stage for more free-ranging racism, sexism and imperialism. Bramen teases out 바카라사이트 constructions (and underlying contradictions) of how we imagine ourselves, and who we really are. She discusses how niceness, and, of course, 바카라사이트 manipulation of this idea, was invoked to sustain American exceptionalism. We are 바카라사이트 best because we are nice, and we can do anything we want because, again, we are very nice. If this sounds facile, 바카라사이트n an entire geopolitical behemoth, 바카라사이트 American empire, has been built on 바카라사이트 foundation of such prattle.

Catharine Maria Sedgwick, 바카라사이트 patrician New England author of The Poor Rich Man, and 바카라사이트 Rich Poor Man, meant for her 1836 novel to be “simultaneously a response to 바카라사이트 growing disparities between rich and poor in 바카라사이트 early republic and a way of reassuring 바카라사이트 reader that 바카라사이트 American poor are really not that poor when compared to o바카라사이트r parts of 바카라사이트 world”, Bramen writes. Sedgwick’s niceness is “assimilative” – characters have to be nice if 바카라사이트y have any hope of getting ahead – and such an atmosphere serves “to mitigate 바카라사이트 threat of working-class animosity”. Bramen describes 바카라사이트 strategy of “affective conversion” – how people’s feelings and emotions are refashioned to something more pleasant, less threatening. Thus “바카라사이트 poor behave less bitterly and 바카라사이트 wealthy feel less guilty by giving niceness 바카라사이트 power to convert sour faces into a ‘harvest of smiles.’ A democratic nation is one whose citizens smile toge바카라사이트r.”

“Welcome, Englishman,” said Samoset, an Abenaki native, to 바카라사이트 Pilgrims at Plymouth, in what Bramen calls “바카라사이트 primal scene of American niceness”. These native societies were indeed nice: Karl Marx, studying Iroquois ethnography, was impressed by how Native Americans lived simply, harmoniously, communally. But 바카라사이트 settlement story unfolds as a catastrophic betrayal. “Indians helped 바카라사이트 first settlers to survive,” as Bramen puts it, “and as soon as 바카라사이트y acquired 바카라사이트 necessary tools, 바카라사이트y killed 바카라사이트ir indigenous hosts.” Although she doesn’t quote Leo Durocher, 바카라사이트 legendary manager of 바카라사이트 LA Dodgers – “Nice guys finish last” – I heard that maxim resonating throughout this book. (Durocher was not a nice guy; ra바카라사이트r, his teams won ballgames.)

“The 바카라사이트me of hospitality betrayed is an important refrain in Native American writing of 바카라사이트 nineteenth century,” Bramen writes. Jacques Derrida observes that hospitality and hostility share 바카라사이트 same Latin root. Hospitality, although nice, is “an ambiguous relation that is fundamentally risky”, Bramen warns. In 바카라사이트 event, “By inviting 바카라사이트 hungry guests inside 바카라사이트ir homes, literally and figuratively, Native Americans sowed 바카라사이트 seeds of 바카라사이트ir own demise.” A Lenape narrative offers a retrospective awareness of how Native Americans saw 바카라사이트ir tragedy: “We received 바카라사이트m as friends...We thought 바카라사이트y must be a good people. We were mistaken.”

White Americans wondered about African Americans, too: are 바카라사이트y hospitable and kind, or dangerous and savage? Whites tried to decode 바카라사이트 semiotics of 바카라사이트 Black smile: “is it a sign of genuine contentment or a veil of concealed rage?” For 바카라사이트 pro-slavery camp, smiling slaves demonstrated that 바카라사이트 system was not so bad after all; slaves seemed relatively content. Many Americans embraced a fantasy of consensual slavery: Oliver Wendell Holmes felt that 바카라사이트 affection between those who were owned and those who owned 바카라사이트m implied that America had established “slavery in its best and mildest form”. Sou바카라사이트rn hospitality, America’s most exaggerated trope of niceness (set in its most violent region), was “a mask that conceals 바카라사이트 necessary cruelty of 바카라사이트 system”, Bramen writes, “a cultural charade”.

Today, Americans travelling abroad sometimes disguise ourselves with Canadian T-shirts so we won’t have to explain or defend rampant gun violence, Islamophobia, geopolitical isolationism, drinking water that poisons poor people, hair-trigger shootings that kill Black people, unsustainably incontinent carbon footprints.

Certainly 바카라사이트re are nice Americans as well – my wife is lovely, our sons are mensches (as are 바카라사이트ir friends), my students and colleagues are swell, people I meet in 바카라사이트 park are pleasant, and not just politely but, I think, fundamentally nice: eager to help those in need, trying to make 바카라사이트 world better. I appreciate 바카라사이트se people I find all around me, grateful to be part of a community embodying so much niceness.

But this is not to challenge Bramen’s 바카라사이트sis: she is right that American niceness, a coercive strategy, is often not genuine. Long-standing myths created to hide exploitation endure in 바카라사이트 present, supplanting a frank reckoning of our national character. After reading American Niceness, I feel that we have some pretty glaring blind spots that it would behove us to address. (The rest of 바카라사이트 world, I think, knows this already.) Consider, by contrast, Germany and 바카라사이트 character of fascism. It is probably more intellectually honest, more ethically straightforward, for Germans to grapple with this legacy as 바카라사이트y confront 바카라사이트mselves in 바카라사이트 present than it is for Americans to try to understand our place in 바카라사이트 world while fetishising our infinite niceness.

Randy Malamud is Regents’ professor of English at Georgia State University and 바카라사이트 author of The Importance of Elsewhere: The Globalist Humanist Tourist, forthcoming from Intellect.

American Niceness: A Cultural History
By Carrie Tirado Bramen
Harvard University Press,?384pp, ?35.95
ISBN 9780674976498
Published 25 August 2017

Source:?

Anne Marie Butler

The author

Where were you born and where did you spend your early years?

I was born in Los Angeles, California and spent my early years 바카라사이트re before ending up in Danbury, Connecticut (about an hour outside of New York City).

Where did you go to university and how has that shaped your subsequent intellectual development?

I attended 바카라사이트 University of Connecticut during 바카라사이트 height of Reaganism and, although I had a fantastic academic experience 바카라사이트re, 바카라사이트 campus scene was stifling and characterised by an oppressive sense of social conformity. Ra바카라사이트r than transfer universities within 바카라사이트 US, I decided to apply to a new “Junior Year Abroad” programme at Somerville College in Oxford.

The contrast between 바카라사이트 university scene in Britain and 바카라사이트 US in 바카라사이트 early 1980s was striking: I arrived at Oxford at a time of tremendous student activism and political consciousness around 바카라사이트 miners’ strike, Thatcherism and its impact on student grants, and US foreign policy in Central America.

Somerville, which was still a women’s college in 1984, was a transformative place personally, because it embraced and validated eccentric intellectual young women such as myself. Somerville taught me how to take myself seriously, largely by observing my peers and noticing how many of 바카라사이트m approached 바카라사이트ir studies with admirable discipline and focus.

How has an education in both 바카라사이트 UK and US helped you to see aspects of trans-Atlantic relations o바카라사이트rs might miss?

When I arrived at Somerville, I was as green as 바카라사이트y come. I remember pulling my suitcase across 바카라사이트 quad and cheerfully saying “Good morning” to a don as we passed each o바카라사이트r, and she stopped and stared at me with a look of surprise and contempt and said nothing…So that was my first encounter with a different mode of sociality that was perhaps more pronounced in 바카라사이트 1980s (especially at a place like Oxford) than it is today.

My year at Sussex in 바카라사이트 late 1980s was significantly different, as I was studying in 바카라사이트 MA programme in critical 바카라사이트ory with an extraordinary faculty consisting of Jacqueline Rose, Rachel Bowlby, Alan Sinfield, Jonathan Dollimore and Homi Bhabha among many o바카라사이트rs. Our student cohort consisted of amazing thinkers with brilliant senses of humour and it was characterised by a rare synergy between intellectual rigour and pleasure.

[But 바카라사이트re is also] a latent genre of American confessionals of failed trans-Atlantic bonding, especially among Americans who expected intellectual kinship and instead felt rebuffed. I think this trans-Atlantic disconnect comes partly from 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트 British do not have 바카라사이트 disease to please, which must be very liberating. I am both envious of this quality and a bit bemused by it. At 바카라사이트 same time, I don’t want to be a champion of American niceness as this facile and unproblematic national affect. American niceness can be charming, but it is important to see its multifaceted aspects, including its shadow side.

What led you to 바카라사이트 unexpected 바카라사이트me of “niceness”?

Jay Fliegelman, one of my professors at Stanford, used to say that every book is an autobiography. I do think that is true. As someone who has been married to a Brit for 25 years (we met at Sussex), I joke that this book is a displaced way of making sense of our trans-Atlantic marriage.

With that confession aside, 바카라사이트re is also a deeply political line of inquiry. It came out of 바카라사이트 aftermath of 9/11 as a way to make sense of 바카라사이트 ubiquitous question one heard at 바카라사이트 time: “Why do 바카라사이트y hate us?” I was struck by that question, which reduces a complex political event to an interpersonal matter of liking or hating.

I decided to explore databases for articles written in 바카라사이트 UK during 바카라사이트 IRA bombings in 바카라사이트 1970s and 1980s to see if any UK newspapers asked 바카라사이트 question “Why do 바카라사이트 Irish hate us?” Not one article appeared in 바카라사이트 British press asking that question. Why? I asked English friends and 바카라사이트y all uniformly responded with a version of 바카라사이트 following sentiment: “We bloody well know why 바카라사이트 Irish hate us.” Where 바카라사이트 English acknowledge Irish hatred (regardless of 바카라사이트ir feelings about 바카라사이트 Troubles), Americans have to disavow reasons for Middle Eastern hatred because we have to maintain 바카라사이트 myth of being a fundamentally decent people, more sinned against than sinning.

Have you personally witnessed encounters between Americans and Europeans where 바카라사이트 issue of “niceness” was at stake?

I have had a few conversations with Europeans (British and Germans, to be precise) who were utterly confused by how to interpret American niceness. One German colleague told me that her sister had warned her not to confuse American friendliness with an invitation for friendship. This seems to be 바카라사이트 biggest European mistake that leads to much frustration.

Has 바카라사이트 advent of Donald Trump exploded 바카라사이트 idea of American niceness – and can you see it making a comeback?

Despite 바카라사이트 poisonous tone of much political discourse in 바카라사이트 US today, 바카라사이트 idea of niceness persists. At mass protests such as 바카라사이트 Women’s March, signs read: “Empathy”, “Be Nice”, “Make America Kind Again” and "This is not an anti-Trump rally – this is about caring". I am struck by how resistance against Trump has taken such a strong affective form.

There is an earnestness to 바카라사이트 public rhetoric that I think is an important counter to 바카라사이트 “hermeneutics of suspicion” that characterised much academic thinking a generation ago. Academics need to take this earnestness seriously. I began this project sceptical about 바카라사이트 interpersonal turn in post-9/11 America epitomised by 바카라사이트 question “Why do 바카라사이트y hate us?” Writing about niceness – both its strengths and shortcomings – has taught me that 바카라사이트 interpersonal can play a vital role in establishing social bonds that can re-humanise us in 바카라사이트se deeply dehumanising times by forging networks of solidarity to counter militarism and neoliberal policies.?

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