Thread by @MatthewGreenf11

"Every country using the English-language internet experiences a version of this angst—call it the American Rhino Problem. With so many dominant tech companies headquartered in Silicon Valley, the rules of the web are set there—and by politicians in Washington."

https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/1321167953736441856

"The website of the BBC, our national broadcaster, is always plastered with stories about the U.S., while Ireland, which was under British rule until a century ago and with whom we share a border, might as well be the moon."

"the nonstop reality-television show that is the Trump White House has been inescapable in London, to a degree that is disproportionate even considering America’s undoubted global influence...

...China makes our toys, our clothes, and our anti-COVID personal protective equipment, but occupies a fraction of our mental bandwidth."

"Nowhere is the American rhino more obvious than in social-justice activism. “Over the past couple of months, many Britons have imported American discourse on race wholesale..“When asked to analyze the experiences of Black people in the UK we now talk with an American accent.”

" Somehow, a man from Philadelphia had become the designated arbiter of whether it was appropriate for a British woman to wear a Jamaican flag bikini and a hairstyle named for people in southern Africa...

...(American readers: If you think being stuck in a culture war is bad, imagine being stuck in someone else’s.)"

"Owolade argued that this risked cloaking “the reality of Black British lives behind an abstraction that flattens our humanity.” He noted that while many Black Americans are descendants of slaves, the majority of Black Britons are immigrants...

..., or the children of immigrants—which should influence our discussions of diversity initiatives here..While Black Britons are underrepresented in publishing and the arts, the same is not true in the kinds of professions toward which middle-class immigrants push their children"

"British-born people from a Black Caribbean background are four times as likely as Black Americans to have a white partner, and those from a Black African background are twice as likely...

... The majority of mixed-race Britons are themselves in mixed-race relationships. As a result, he added, the “segregationist strand of Black American race thinking” is not really present in Britain."

"it isn’t good for the United States either. Being part of the dominant group always leads to shortsightedness: an assumption that your laws, culture, and taboos are universal, the default state of humanity."

"Citizens of pretty much any other advanced democracy will find it strange to read an American journalist’s claim that “we have long lines for voting for the same reason we have long lines for major concerts: it's a rare event for which demand occurs all at once.”"

"guns may be the best example of how hegemony breeds insularity, as Americans forget how unusual their gun laws are compared with..other liberal democracies..internet discussions of social justice usually treat the widespread presence of guns, and high murder rates, as a given."

The above thread is the words of @helenlewis
helenlewis.substack.com
theatlantic.com/international/…