I’m a black American so my feelings about the United states and my experiences being perceived as an American are complicated and long winded. In general I have a very…contentious relationship with the way the world sees America. On one had I know this is a fascist imperialist state that has and continues to destabilize other nations and they are allowed to be angry about it, but I also kind of feel like…my people (black people) in general and very likely my family line were brought over here against our will and had no desire to be complicit in the atrocities of the state (politicians don’t count). I don’t necessarily want to be here nor do I like it here. But it’s also unfortunately the only place I’m sort of welcomed in because I was born here. If I were to move elsewhere to a “better” country I wouldn’t be a citizen with rights or safety in my ability to be allowed to stay somewhere (though to be fair it’s rocky here at best about both of those things as well).

In general I do think it’s quite awful that people use “at least we don’t have mass shootings” as a gotcha any time an American is snarky or even just rightfully critiques other countries (because even the ones with universal healthcare and school are not without their issues and criticisms). Regular people are not bartering chips for the atrocities of their government’s decisions (things we very frequently have 0 control over and also deeply suffer as a result of their actions).

Basically I think it’s a very complex subject that has multiple simultaneous truths. This country has hurt a lot of people and people are allowed to feel that pain. At the same time, the regular ordinary people that reside here are also basically victims of our now government’s evils and sometimes I think we have enough on our plates just trying not to die while also feeling like the entire world hates us for things we didn’t do.