I like the tea party

I’ve always  criticized the stereotype that media makes about Middle Eastern people. One of my common subjects when I discuss with  friends from  different countries, is this phenomen. It happens if I mention that I’m Iranian, the first words that come out are Nuclear program, Ahmadinejad and all the other stereotypes that exist for those from the Middle East. By the way I am not supposed to talk about those ideas. At least I feel that my voice is too weak in comparison to the mass media that pump those ideas nonstop. However, I would like to mention some of my stereotype images about other people all around the world, the majority of which are completely false. I’ve had an emotional friendship with a Swede while I thought that they are coldest people in the world. I found that Germans are open mind people while it was one of my assumption that they’re close and xenophobic. I saw the Frenchs as old-fashioned people with traditional culture while I had thought they had a revolutionary mind and are anti-tradition. I found americans to be the most kind people that I’ve ever met.

Me and my Republican friend Daniel

Among Americans, republicans have an image like in western cowboys films, meaning that hey are too much a uniformly white rich community, thereby racist and anti strangers.  They are those people with an aggressive attitude who want to burn others not like them and bomb all the other countries. At least that was the image which mass media created for me as the representative image of republicans and tea party supporters.

When I was in Boston it was an opportunity to discover a different part of American society. For this purpose, I didn’t miss any opportunity to meet different people, people from different races, religions, origins, political tendency, economic class and so on. For this goal I contacted anyone whom I thought could have any links in the states and specially in Boston. One of my american friends whom I met in the elementary French course at Sorbonne university introduced me to an American-Korean engineer. After the first time that I asked him to hangout, he asked me if I minded going to church. I thought why not. Because generally my Iranian friends have connection with  liberals or progressives, it is easier for me to have links with this part of American society. However, I was curious about the traditions of Christianity,  the Bible, and the conservative people in the States. It had not ended for one time. I went to the church on Sundays regularly and listened to the sermons and hanged out with people from the church.  I even played as a member of the church soccer team in the city league.

I was observing their life style because I believe that the way in which people live everyday is more honest than their official political statements. For example, in the progressive groups, I noticed that they are almost all white while in the church, in the conservative community, the people were from different races. More meaningful than just sitting close together, I saw that many relationships and married couples were from different races. Is there any other indicator more eloquent than dating and marriage between different races that show how some people look at others without a race issue?