Dear Editor,
We have heard twice from English students on the subject of stereotypes, and I empathize with their frustration. Being the object of ethnocentric stereotypes is indeed maddening. America has been England's steadfast friend for many years. Why should we scrap with one another?
So let's be fair. I empathize with those students because a certain amount of my exposure to Europeans has involved stereotyping. No, I am not a cowboy, as some Europeans think that all Americans are. I do not speak like a valley girl, as the gentleman from Surrey seems to think Americans do. If, as an American, I am an uncultured boob (as it has more than once been suggested that I am), it's because I don't have proper (European) culture. I have even been mocked for referring to a 'lift' as an 'elevator,' even though Elisha Otis (the machine's inventor) was from Vermont.
To paraphrase the English gentleman, I know that some people get a lot of laughs out of my simple Midwestern ways. So let's spread this medicine around. I do not make fun of English people, nor do I make fun of Polynesians nor Latin Americans. I daresay that most of the people on this campus could say the same thing. I know you wouldn't want to enforce a stereotype on the rest of us. I promise not to talk about any Englishman as if he were Benny Hill or part of Monty Python. I hope nobody treats me as if I were from a John Wayne movie or from some idiotic MTV program.
Chris Schwartz
West York, Ill.