An Asian-American Response to Amanda Knox and Anti-Americanism

Some time ago, I was watching something on either Fox News Channel, or on some other cable news outlet (Headline News?) regarding the latest phase of the “Foxy Knoxy” homicide trial of the (Italian) century, and it’s interesting to note that during the court proceedings, one particular foreign policy pundit/crime expert, surmised that what makes the Seattle-born college student such a big deal is that her crimes were committed and publicised during the height of anti-American feelings towards the then-Bush administration’s Iraq War policies. So, by proxy, this pretty but pretty questionable, drama queen (Amanda’s known to be the “attention whore” type) embodies everything bad about America–especially George W. Bush!

But here’s the irony: given the sort of Christian conservative views/reputation the ex-chief executive has, wouldn’t “Foxy Knoxy” be the worst example for an America-bashing model, given her shenanigans of the drunken, libidous nature? I mean sure; “W” had his share of youthful, inebriated wild oats–followed by his daughters’ (Jenna and Barbara’s), subsequent, “Girls-Gone-Wild” PR nightmare, BUT… 

With W’s Christian principles (i.e. pertaining to Focus-On-The-Family-styled family values/policies), isn’t there something contradictory behind using Knox as some kind of political government mule for Italy’s premier, Left-wing elitist, sermonising? I mean, has anyone ever bothered to investigate what sort of values system, if not at least, political beliefs, Amanda Knox holds then (before entering the foreign student exchange program), during (the brutal drug-fueled, sex murder of classmate Meredith Kercher), and after (with the trial proceedings)? For all I know, had Knox hadn’t been an American exchange student in Italy–let alone a homicide suspect, I wouldn’t rule out, if not be surprised that “Foxy Knoxy” would be a vocal Obama supporter!*

*she is after all, part of that same Gen-Y/Millenial generation, said to have been the decisive voting bloc that helped elect our current chief executive into the Oval Office!

But to put this news item on a more personal level, I will have to say that everything being said about Amanda Knox (as somehow being quintessentially American enough, for foreign, “Yankee-bashing”), is far from the kind of Americanism I grew up around. Being a sired product of my fresh-off-the-boat (or F.O.B), Chinese immigrant parents, I never knew much, if even a fraction of what bona fide, Americana is like–IF Americana strictly means suburbia, John Hughes-styled adolescence/youth pop culture, and of course, having the abundant cash flow to travel around the world, or at least buy as many (literal or not) toys as the competition, a.k.a, the immediate, socio-economic community standards of the mythic, Middle Class… which I’m not: I came from a blue collar, welfare-dependent F.O.B. family–and I haven’t even gotten into the messy, hard-to-believe drama/family history that I had to go through as a child! Even with the scant luxuries I still was able to access with, given the old adage that many immigrants would fare better with our (American) worst conditions, as opposed to their (foreign country of origination) best conditions, still… it wasn’t a fiscally fat enough lifestyle for me to identify with–AT LEAST BY (UNATTAINABLE) MTV STANDARDS: I was a child product of the 80’s, better known to some (politically-detracting types) as, “the decade of greed.”

With my personal and family struggle with finances, coupled with personal/family issues of “measuring up” to whatever Joneses around the L.A. Chinatown neighborhood (oh yeah: it can still be Desperate Housewives even in the Ghettoes, Barrios, and various other Asian immigrant enclaves), I wasn’t afforded the luxury of even doing the sort of supposed, quintessentially American teenage things, “normal” American kids are oft-expected to do… like lose your virginity–if not sleep around with the flavor-of-the-moment (Jr.) High girl, doing bong hits (see Michael Phelps), go on drunken binges–like in your typical-predictable college/fratboy comedies of the Animal House/Revenge of The Nerds/American Pie kind…  And still have the energy to graduate with some (literal?) degree of honors, to some Ivy League University–SO AS TO PERPETUATE THOSE SAME HIGH SCHOOL HIJINKS INTO THE FRATERNITY/SORORITY DORMROOMS!

But no, I was just some typical, atypical Asian-American kid, living pretty much all of his youthful life in full survival mode–both socially and academically: yeah I know… I’m Asian; I’m supposed to be a (stereotypical) straight-A type(!), but Asians too are human… All this and more, into all of my collegiate and all my twenties, was pretty much invested in survival of the psychological, academic, and ultimately fiscal well-being, to anywhere near the satisfactory level, if not above… so as some may interpret this, I never had the privileged/mythological, All-American teenage/collegiate life, if not All-American life, period… which also not surprisingly, gave little to no privileged experience with foreign travel, to check out cultures outside of my immediate surroundings (Arizona, NoCal, and the Las Vegas/Laughlin area is as far out of my surrounding as I could attain to), to live out the stereotypical spoiled American life… which leads us back…

Amanda Knox… Having been a biblically-minded Christian, of politically-conservative inclinations for half of my current life, I’ve also come to the ironic conclusion that for all the popular perception of my party affiliation as  “The party of the rich (you know; Republican),” being conservative actually means more to do with coming from impoverished to modest beginnings (i.e. my family history), if not being part of the common working class (better known to snobbish types as “peasants,” or the class-confrontational insult, “bourgeoisie”: see Kevin Mattson’s Rebels All!). I guess that’s why I can’t help but respect the Italian filmmaker/novelist/intellectual/poet laureate, Pier Paolo Passollini, when he opined (much to the chagrin of the Paris ‘68 generation) that the real proletariats out on the street, quelling the student riots are the riot cops themselves(!), given that it’s the poorer classes from Southern Italy who can’t afford the same privileges of a college education–the same college setting where many of the student leftist radicals had, and always have been, sheltered inside its confides, claiming to be the bona fide proletariats–never mind the fact that these “Che Guevara” student types hail from the more pampered, middle-to-upper class northern provinces of Italy!*

*Hence, the post-60’s political perjorative of limousine liberal, chardonnay socialist, champagne socialist, even Lexus Leftist! See intellectual elite…

‘Dunno if the Kerchner murder site (Perugia) is located anywhere near the more impoverished sector/half of the nation (since the university town is located around central Italy), BUT… one would have to question the Italian pundits–uhhhh… I mean “intelligentsia,” if their Bush Derangement Syndrome attacks by (Amanda Knox) proxy is more of prime, politically-hypocritical example of the pot calling the kettle black–especially if it’s coming from the same Perugia/Italian national, (pseudo-)intellectual-types, that’s been (ironically) lionizing/worshipping some of the most vehemently anti-intellectual icons (see Chairman Mao, Che Guevara, etc…) in 20th century history–maybe moreso anti-intellectual than the most ignorant variations/stereotypical imaginations of Pat Robertson!

And with my simple-at-best-described, origins, it’s somewhat insulting to be generally categorized alongside “Foxy Knoxy,” as some stereotype of what it means to be American–if not dirty American, by European chardonnay socialst/caviar gauche standards! Not only is this a great disservice to America, but likewise with Italy, and pretty much all of Europe… at least those in Western Europe, still under the antiquated, ideological stranglehold of the moldy Paris ‘68 generation! Being an Asian-American Christian conservative, with passionate dreams of visiting AND establishing better Atlanticist relations between The States and The E.U. (especially if this includes a Christian revival in The Old World),  trying very hard in The Lord, not to hastily generalize all Europeans as a bunch of godless, beluga-and-champagne-gorging, know-it-all, libertine hypocrites, with communist AND ultimately, Hezbollah sympathies, given that larger segments of say, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, The U.K., Scandinavia, etc… have as much of their own versions of “Red State” populaces, inhabiting inside (what could be) their own respective versions of, Bible Belts, rural/countrysides, family values-centric suburbs, etc… intellectually independent enough to share pro-American, pro-free-markets, and possibly even pro-Judeo-Christian values-centric/pro-Israeli inclinations; see Angela Merkel, Nicholas Sarkozy, and possibly even Gordon Brown!

I guess in the meantime, should I ever have the opportunity to travel inside Europe–including Perugia, Italy, maybe I should mass-market this clever form of politicall-expressive wear, displaying apologetically an image of Amanda Knox–with the subtly, subversively-ironic captions, NOT MY AMERICA!