The Influence of America

YMCMB. Ugly Americans. Illuminati. What do these three things have in common? They are all prominent aspects of the South African, or at least the Capetonian, culture that stem directly from the United States. Like many people around the world, including those in Guatemala where I lived this summer, South African’s are constantly looking at and being influenced by the United States. Unfortunately, the United States culture that they receive cannot even compare to the one I know. MTV, E!, and all those awful soap operas you had to watch when you were home sick as a kid are the major sources of television. American music, in particular hip hop and rap, is more popular than South African music, and you better believe American movies are watched here as well. To some extent, it is kind of cool. I can’t help but smile when my students start singing some song that’s on my ipod, and it’s nice to know that when the Hunger Games movie comes out all of us here who read the book don’t have to miss out on seeing the movie in theaters.

"Young Money, Cash Money, Bitches" 

The trouble comes when people don’t realize the separation between the dramatization of the media and the realization of normal life. For instance, as people have found out I’m in a long distance relationship they all hesitantly ask if I trust my girlfriend so far away. Granted, South Africa has an incredibly high divorce rate, at around 65%, but I suspected that it went deeper than that. As it turns out, Cheaters, is a very popular show here. Apparently all American’s cheat on their partners. In another example, upon arrival I started seeing “YMCMB” all over the place, mostly on clothing. At first I thought it was some sort of parody off of the YMCA, but after seeing it scribbled in one of my 8^th graders notebooks I had to ask. “Young Money, Cash Money, Bitches” is what he responded with. Lil Wayne, I should have known. He is huge here, almost everyone I’ve asked says he’s their favorite rapper, and clearly he has a pretty big influence. To think that he is their American role model is pretty sad.

Relating to the media, the youth in South Africa are convinced that the likes of Oprah, Kanye West, and Lady Gaga are in a secret society called the Illuminati. It’s the same society that Dan Brown talks about in his books and its members are said to worship the devil. A couple weeks ago I engaged in a long conversation about it with a student during the lunch interval at school. His example of proof that it exists was when Lady Gaga wore the meat suit to the VMAs. I countered his argument saying that maybe she wore it to symbolize how women are objectified and seen as a “piece of meat.” The student stopped to think for a moment and all he could say was “that’s a really good theory.” That was the end of that conversation. Once again, it’s scary to think that this is the impression of the United States that they are receiving.

Ugly American gang graffiti, in my 10th grade classroom...

In the last and probably scariest of these American influences is the Ugly Americans. This is the name of one of the biggest and scariest gangs in Cape Town. Why they decided to name their gang this I have no idea but it certainly isn’t a positive reflection of the US. Where they are present is where we’re not supposed to go as students, but even more, where they’re present is where locals don’t even feel safe. Can you imagine not feeling safe in the area you live in?

Anyways, it has been an interesting experience over the past five weeks to see how the United States has crept into a culture so far away. I love engaging in conversations about the differences in the two cultures, and I take every opportunity I can to try and clear up some of the misconceptions people have about the US. With ten weeks left, I look forward to many more of these talks. I’m also going to continue to ponder how we act as Americans and how this influences the views of millions of people across the world.