Americans Have No Culture

Because it's basically an ERASMUS-Heim, my dorm seems to be built on the principle of cultural exchange in a way that I've never experienced before. Sure, I had plenty of international friends at Harvard. But at Harvard, the specific countries where my friends came from were not that salient to their public identities. We talked about sex in Georgia, transportation in France, educational philosophy in Nepal, etc. whenever it came up, but because we were all trying to fit into the cosmopolitan culture of Harvardland, national identities were not a huge part of our daily reality.

Here, it's altogether different. I've already talked about how this represents the first time many of the students here have gotten the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. And part and parcel of that is a kind of "food and festivals" multiculturalism that seems to be pretty common in the Heim.

For example, my Singaporean flatmate Jia Min, who of the three of us in the room seems to be the one who's diving most deeply into the life of the Heim, has been enticing people all week to invite her over for traditional foods from their home countries. "So on Monday, Ishmaheel cooked Nigerian food, then Dovaine cooked Lithuanian food on Wednesday, Conzi cooked (German) potato salad on Friday, and I'm going to cook Singaporean food next week once the other Singaporeans get here and bring their rice cooker." To which my Slovakian flatmate said, "Oh! I should cook Slovak food for you guys next week, too!" Which is awesome -- I love free food.

Eating Chinese food with Jia Min (left), friends from her exchange program, and my roommate Petra (to my left)

But what am I going to contribute to this? American food isn't exotic, or a harbinger of a discriminating culinary taste; they don't sell burgers at restaurants with crystal glasses and linen tablecloths. To the world, American food is that disgusting food you wish you didn't like but you can't deny that you do.

In fact, Americans often get derided for "not having a culture." This isn't true, obviously. I think of culture as the discursive "stuff" of daily reality, the references, slang, shorthand we use to make ourselves understood with other cultural insiders. And of that, America has plenty. I once caught in the act a Bavarian pretending he was American by asking, "In what computer game do you die of dysentery?" (Trust me, if you're an American in your mid-20s, you know the answer to that question.) Similarly, I was impressed when these guys made a reference to the elementary school video "I'm Just a Bill" -- that's American culture, pure and simple.

But in terms of the cultural "biggies," the stuff you can show people to give them a superficial understanding of life in your country (food, music, language), American cultural products are either borrowed from other countries, or so global that they've lost their association with the American cultural context that generated them. There is no way, for example, that any country other than the United States could have given rise to Jay-Z. But I can't exactly play "Hard-Knock Life" as part of a sample of "traditional music from our homelands," even though that song is a brilliant play on a story known to every American, and a reference I've discovered many foreigners don't get.

Similarly, I've been asked multiple times in Austria, "So, do you have any regional specialties in Pennsylvania?" And the answer is yes, of course we do. As a Rust Belt city, the vast majority of our (white) inhabitants came from the second wave of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, and so the influence of Central Europe on our culinary traditions is stronger than in other parts of the country. "Typical Pittsburgh food," I would argue, is pierogi, haluski, hot dogs and sauerkraut. But you can't exactly tell an Austrian that sauerkraut is a specialty from where you live with a straight face.

And so I take the ironic view. When asked to participate in a buffet of foods from our home countries way back in Schwäbisch Hall, I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When I visited a Tracht party, I wore sweatpants and a t-shirt from my dorm (it is the traditional garb of an American college student). I don't mind making my "lack of culture" a punchline.

But this is yet another reason, I think, why foreigners can know so much about America without really understanding it. Because Hollywood's not America -- and neither are folk songs or burgers. America is the pain in that song you dance to in clubs the world over without listening to the lyrics. America is the way your distant relatives, who've never stepped foot in Europe, still hang on to snippets of words and holiday foods you would recognize, because they're so desperate to come from somewhere. I can't show you those things at a multicultural festival -- and there's no way you can really share your culture with me by feeding me, either.

But please continue -- I really do like free food.