Land of the Free, Home of the Virus

Happy Independence Day to a country that’s been making me mad lately. Living in France, I’m often asked about America, serving as a sort of on-the-ground expert of American nonsense. I used to respond with comical exasperation, implying that, sure, they’re rascals, but they’re my rascals. Not so much, anymore. It’s not as funny as it used to feel.

Of course, there’s America’s in-your-face racism. However, France isn’t much better in this regard. Racism and systemic oppression are here, too, but in a more subtle way. While we use such labels as African-American, Chinese-American, Mexican-American, and other hyphenated identities, the French have this idea that you’re French above all else. This idea, at best, discourages racism in asserting that one’s background and skin color don’t matter anymore under the big French umbrella. In reality, it allows the white French to dismiss race conversations as irrelevant while French people of color have to point out that, oui âllo, their race doesn’t stop affecting their lives just because white people say it does.

So, as racism persists wherever white people are in control, it doesn’t make me disproportionately mad at America. I’m just as angry at France as I am at my home, as I am at myself. What sparked this piece, then? Coronavirus, of course.

This week, the European Union reopened its borders for the summer tourist season. America, however, is not invited. After the economy-crippling lockdowns, Europe is willingly depriving itself of a huge source of tourism revenue. This isn’t a decision made lightly, or some kind of playground retaliation against America’s early ban on Europeans. While that does play a part, it’s also a huge sacrifice aimed to preserve the work Europeans have done to get this virus under control, something America is failing at, miserably.

Do we not realize, Americans, that, through our disorganization, our ineptitude, our very selfishness, we are now the plague rats? The American passport is no longer a get-in-free card for tourists. We can’t go wherever we want, do anything we please. The joke is on us.

When this virus was first appearing in Wuhan, we banned Chinese visitors as though we were swatting at a pesky mosquito. Silly Chinese, we figured, serves them right for eating bats. (Even though scientists don’t fully agree bats were the culprit.) We already look down upon China for their food, their government, and the very sound of their language, so of course the virus would start there. There’s no way we, Americans, would let that happen here. 

Then it got to Italy, at frightening numbers, the rate of infection rocketing past what it was at the virus’s epicenter, and we started to get nervous. We started to fidget at the idea that a western and a--gasp--white country could be brought to its knees by the so-called “Wuhan virus.” Nevertheless, Italy is one of those outlandish European countries with a socialized healthcare system, where citizens are brainwashed into paying high taxes for what must be an overworked, stretched-thin hospital system.

That couldn’t happen in America, so far away, where we have our shiny, expensive healthcare. Not everybody can have access, but boy the ones who can afford it sure get the good stuff. 

Then, lo and behold, it got to America. We just won’t admit it. Sure, when it first hit hard and hot spots like New York City were brought down, we made an effort. Shelter-in-place orders came out, restaurants closed, and, for a time, my experience in Paris lockdown was similar to my family’s experience in Memphis, TN. The lockdown in Paris was more heavily enforced, but then again there were more cases here. It made sense. The difference is that, in France, the cases went down enough that lockdown was lifted, gradually, according to the rate of infection in different regions. In America, the lockdown was lifted because people got tired of it. And because we’re American, damn it, and the government can’t tell us what to do.

On June 30th, in my birthplace of Shelby County, TN, there were 594 confirmed new cases in 24 hours. On the same day and in the same time frame, France had 541 confirmed new cases. The population of France is about 66,990,000. The population of Shelby County is about 940,000. And yet, in both locations restaurants are open, stores are open, and people seem determined to live their lives as though nothing is wrong. Because of our long-standing social inequities, Black and Hispanic communities are 5 times more likely to be hospitalized from the virus, and we have the nerve to act like it’s “no big deal.”

Did France handle the virus perfectly? Absolutely not. France is trying to reopen for the summer holidays, in a way that makes me anxious about a second wave. But at least, here, it would be a definitive second wave. In America, everyone’s still drowning in the first, while convinced they’re floating safely in a lifeboat.

French people often ask me the same question: why? Why aren’t there definitive moves to stop the virus? Why is healthcare so expensive? Why do Americans live with this system? They can’t fathom it. Here’s my answer: this is our “normal.” We are born into this, and therefore we assume that it’s how it’s supposed to be, especially if we’re white, healthy, and economically stable. We hear about other countries’ ways of doing things, chalk it up to cultural differences, and then move on with our day. 

But it’s not normal. It’s not normal that we have the highest rate of Coronavirus infection in the world. It’s not normal that everybody does not have equal access to healthcare, especially during a global pandemic. It’s not normal that every man fends for himself. 

We’re all about American pride at home: I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free. So does it not hurt our pride to know that, at best, America is the butt of other countries’ jokes, and at worst, we’re a villain? When I discuss America with French people, they take comfort in our near-caricatural flaws: sure France has its problems, but putain, at least it’s not America.

We’re not the best of the best. It is not our way or the highway. If we could acknowledge that and start looking past the ends of our noses, or our rifles, maybe we could start improving things.

So, Happy Independence Day to my home country. I do appreciate our right to free speech. In celebration of the holiday, here I am, exercising mine. 

I’ll also be watching Hamilton on Disney+.

Thanks y’all,