Ummm, and who's idea are you referring to there?
Because no-one has mentioned "the Idea" prior to you.
Do Canadians pronounce the number zero ("zee-row") as "zed-row?"
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Over-representation of Americans
- Thread starter Mattadd
- Start date
Because no-one has mentioned "the Idea" prior to you.
"He means that America's population consists of all nationalities. America doesn't have an ethnic identity or ethnic heritage the way many other nations do."
Except they do. They're American and that is very distinct from their ethnic heritage. The fact that many of them retain aspects of their ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds does not alter the fact that by and large they have spent several generations intermingling in a place hundreds of miles removed from their geographical roots. Italian Americans neither represent, nor are representative of, Italy for instance. Irish Americans likewise. It's really only within America that this myth circulates. Americans rightly celebrate their heritage, they may even embrace it in their day to day lives, but after all this time they are first and foremost American.
I'm British, part of the original stock for American colonists, but in no way does America represent me, nor is it's culture representative of mine. We share ideas but the differences are as telling as the similarities. When I see a white American on TV I don't see "someone like me", or someone I can specifically relate to except in the broader sense of the shared human condition.
This is no bad thing, those differences are a thing of beauty, of joy, something to be proud of and celebrate, but they do exist. When we look at the far future as portrayed and ask "is modern day America overrepresented in this world" the answer is objectively "yes".
We know why that has happened, we all understand the practicalities of casting a show within financial and geographical limitations, but the result is still a future skewed by the cultural and political realities of the modern world.
I think the litmus test would be very simple.
Suppose another country, let's say China, makes a big-budget star trek like series that becomes hugely popular across the world (not likely of course, but just assume it). In its universe, Chinese people are as predominant as American people seem to be in the 'star trek universe'. And of course, everyone speaks Chinese. Most other nationalities seem to be small minorities that pop up every now and then, even though there may be one of two 'token' members on the crew.
Would this bother you, as an American viewer of this series, even in the slightest? If the answer to that is yes, you may have an issue with the "over-representation of Chinese" in that series....
Of course, there's several ways to deal with that.
1) You are going to accept that it is only natural that if a series is produced in country x it will have an abundance of people from cultural background x, even when the series is supposed to play in the far future (the most rational response, imho)
2) You are going to complain on internet about the 'over representation of people from background x'
3) You simply refuse to watch it (the response I would expect from most Americans. Think soccer. Think American remakes of perfectly good original foreign movies that simply aren't "american" enough).
Suppose another country, let's say China, makes a big-budget star trek like series that becomes hugely popular across the world (not likely of course, but just assume it). In its universe, Chinese people are as predominant as American people seem to be in the 'star trek universe'. And of course, everyone speaks Chinese. Most other nationalities seem to be small minorities that pop up every now and then, even though there may be one of two 'token' members on the crew.
Would this bother you, as an American viewer of this series, even in the slightest? If the answer to that is yes, you may have an issue with the "over-representation of Chinese" in that series....
Of course, there's several ways to deal with that.
1) You are going to accept that it is only natural that if a series is produced in country x it will have an abundance of people from cultural background x, even when the series is supposed to play in the far future (the most rational response, imho)
2) You are going to complain on internet about the 'over representation of people from background x'
3) You simply refuse to watch it (the response I would expect from most Americans. Think soccer. Think American remakes of perfectly good original foreign movies that simply aren't "american" enough).
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Interesting and thoughtful response.
Of course, such films and shows do indeed exist and the market for them is much more of a niche category. Bollywood movies, for instance, do not generally fare too well outside of their target demographic. The key words there are "target demographic", no one really intends or expects them to take off with a white English speaking audience. As you say often American studios pander to the sensitivities of their audience with remakes of already successful properties, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Wicker Man" spring to mind for movies.
British material often seems to do reasonably well. Sci fi fans world wide watch Dr Who despite it being about as "English" as it is possible to be whilst keeping a modern slant. However America in particular seems to favour remakes of popular shows.
This, of course, does not sit at all well with the idea that the US is in some sense a cultural melting pot which represents humanity in the broader sense with no distinct identity of it's own, a pan cultural meta sample of the human race. On the contrary it indicates that not only do US audiences identify as "American" but they are resistant to media which draws on their historical roots over their current status.
Studios remake shows and films to represent "American" as an identity unto itself, not as descendants of their European forebears.
To me the picture is less "humaity as a whole feels represented in it's diversity by America" (we really don't) and more "America is surprisingly insular and sensitive with regards to outside influences"
It's an American TV show so it's going to have more American actors - plain and simple. I don't complain that Doctor Who seems to have so many Brits on it. They travel to the future and all the humans have British accents- I don't read anything more into it than it's a British show.
You are absolutely right and I do get that. If nothing else financial and geographical practicalities will have dictated much of the casting parameters. My comments are in relation to @Tesophius's pretty ignorant attitude that America is somehow accepted as representative of humanity as a whole and @Mattadd's (in my view) understandable overreaction.
In everyday parlance, Americans conflate nationality with ethnic/cultural background. Witness this confusion when you are on a flight full of Americans going into another country and everyone has to fill in "nationality" on the customs form.
There's this concept of identifying with one's heritage from the old country even without a direct connection to the contemporary socio-cultural milieu of said country. Of course, there's nothing wrong with celebrating one's heritage and cultural practices that came from a certain place. But it's not quite the same as actually having grown up in that place.
I once had a teacher who quizzed his class on their national/ethnic/cultural/etc. backgrounds. He absolutely wouldn't let anyone say "American" unless they were indigenous peoples (and there weren't any in that class).
Kor
There's this concept of identifying with one's heritage from the old country even without a direct connection to the contemporary socio-cultural milieu of said country. Of course, there's nothing wrong with celebrating one's heritage and cultural practices that came from a certain place. But it's not quite the same as actually having grown up in that place.
I once had a teacher who quizzed his class on their national/ethnic/cultural/etc. backgrounds. He absolutely wouldn't let anyone say "American" unless they were indigenous peoples (and there weren't any in that class).
Kor
Of course it would depend on how well it was done, but from the way you describe it, no it wouldn't bother me. if well done I would enjoy the subtitled/dubbed version of the show.
If there can be ships with all/mostly Americans, why not other ships with all/mostly Chinese? And yes they most likely would be speaking Chinese.
I am now finding this a interesting idea.
Or as one of my high school teachers would say "Siberian-Americans," the same teacher who would occasinally insist that all Americans were African-Americans owing to all Humans being able to trace our ancestry to Africa.
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The convo got a bit derailed here. Suffice it to say Americans think they represent the world and the world disagrees.
The OP stipulated to disregard the IRL reasons for the over-representation, and everyone seems to be getting hung up on those reasons. I was more wanting to explore in-universe why there seemed to be more Americans than seemed reasonable.
The OP stipulated to disregard the IRL reasons for the over-representation, and everyone seems to be getting hung up on those reasons. I was more wanting to explore in-universe why there seemed to be more Americans than seemed reasonable.
Maybe America won WW3?
All Americans? Ridiculous, beyond basic concepts all American agree on very little. We're far too diverse a population for that.
But again there are representatives within in our population from all over the world.
I don't and never have. I have family from Germany and France, and have explored various cultures since I was in 3rd grade.
It's far too big of a world to think that everyone in my office building shares the same view on the United States, much less the city, much less the county, much less the state, much less the whole U.S.A.!
Only the meddling Canadian kids and their dog.
As it turns out, we don't pronounce zero "zee-row" but rather as "zear-oh" or "zair-oh."
No there aren't. Americans all share the experience of being American regardless of where they are from. A Japanese American is in no way a representative of Japan.
This demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the "American" experience.
Don't know about this supposed "we," but i do pronouce it zee-row.
Yes there are. Proud to be a third generation American, but that doesn't stop me from being a Cubana.
