Exceptionalism stated simply is a sense of specialness and entitlement attached to those who say they are in fact exceptional without substantiating evidence to support their claim. It is a sense of earned rights that are of course unearned privileges. Exceptionalism without a doubt is a source of many of today’s social problems. It contributes to and actively creates social issues in the world and is fostered most greatly by none other than the United States. For centuries we have proclaimed our superiority as being biological or being tied to class, religion and even culture (Freeman, 36). America has a long track record for itself as the producer and perpetuator of social problems and no other country embodies an inflated sense of exceptionalism
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This is probably because over time I was socialized not to see it, much like for a middle class white American is taught not to see their privilege. I was taught to think of it as second nature, normal, a standard way of life. I remember the most striking moment so far in class was when we were discussing the destruction of African traditions and their way of life, hunting and roaming for their own food; that is when I had a disgusting revelation. Up until this point I saw African poverty as simply the product of geography, it never occurred to me that this was constructed by white settlement, that people didn’t always starve in Africa. It seems so incredibly ridiculous to articulate now, but it simply a by product of American exceptionalism. We as a country flourish because we deserve it, because we have earned it, and those countries who whither and starve do so because they are inept, undeserving, not
This is probably because over time I was socialized not to see it, much like for a middle class white American is taught not to see their privilege. I was taught to think of it as second nature, normal, a standard way of life. I remember the most striking moment so far in class was when we were discussing the destruction of African traditions and their way of life, hunting and roaming for their own food; that is when I had a disgusting revelation. Up until this point I saw African poverty as simply the product of geography, it never occurred to me that this was constructed by white settlement, that people didn’t always starve in Africa. It seems so incredibly ridiculous to articulate now, but it simply a by product of American exceptionalism. We as a country flourish because we deserve it, because we have earned it, and those countries who whither and starve do so because they are inept, undeserving, not