What is it about America?

[HyeJinx1984]

Well, theoretically, stupid me, you should be able to trust your fellow Armenians. I'm slowly learning to do that again, even though that was shot to hell earlier in my life.

I guess I'll share the specific event I'm talking about...:

I was in class one day on April 24. If anyone here know's grant highschool, then you can just imagine 50% of the population wasn't there that day... but I was. For whatever reason I'd never stayed home on that day. So, needless to say, every Armenian in that class was out for the day. I forgot exactly how this happened, but at some point we'd all finished our work earlier and were free to talk and stuff. At some point the class clown (can't remember his name for the life of me) got in front of the class and started doing stand up comedy. The topic was imediately Armenians, taking this oppertunity of their absense to make fun of them. So while you were all home, or at church, or just simply ditching, my senior class was roaring with laughter with every Armenian joke you can think of. Smelly jokes, hairy jokes, accent jokes, you name it this guy was doing it and everyone in the class was having a great time... except, as you may have guessed, ME. I still don't get why people say this, but people say I don't look Armenian, which is why I'm assuming he'd gotten up to do this little act, considering every other Armenian on campus was gone.

Now, you're probably asking "what about the teacher?" Well, she was beside herself with laughter as well. When I said EVERYONE in class was enjoying this, I meant it. At some point, I'm assuming because they noticed I wasn't laughing, someone asked me "Wait, are you Armenian?" and I said Yes. The laughter immediately died and they all looked like deer caught in headlights. After a few seconds of awkward silence the "comedian" came up to me with a big smile and said "Hey no hard feelings right?" I don't remember exactly what I said, but it wasn't very nice.

Since that day where my peers and even my superior/authority figure (teacher) were having a ball degrading my people, I've found it very hard to just trust people of other races.

Of course, this was the same time every Armenian at Gran tHigh School wanted to kill me for some reason... It was probably my hair, since I didn't gell it and put a net on it. Or perhaps because I wore comic book shirts instead of black shirts with a gold cross. Hmm.. or maybe it was because I didn't insert the word "ara" after every other word. Well, whatever the reason, I was completely heartbroken by the other races of the school, and had no one to go to talk about it because my brothers and sisters would probably punch me and toss me into the garbage can cause I didn't talk like them. High school was a wonderful time to be me and surrounded by my countrymen.

Sorry if I seem bitter and whiney over "stupid highschool sh*t"

[ArmoBarbi]

I can't believe your teacher supported this...sad. At my high school people didn't know about Armenians untill they met me. The LA Armenians are very different from the Detroit Armenians. Here they are very suburban and preppy. (including me even though I'm far from Detroit) I've only been to LA a couple of times and I do not think those Armenians are nearly as Americanized as the ones you would find in MI. Those kinds of jokes would not get a response here.

"Or perhaps because I wore comic book shirts instead of black shirts with a gold cross. Hmm.. or maybe it was because I didn't insert the word "ara" after every other word. "...I say "ara" to my mom all the time cause it annoys her. I tell her that if she had exposed me to Armenian when she had the chance I could use other words so it's all her fault. That one gets her too. hehe ~Svetlana~

[patlajan]

Can we stop jumping to conclusions based on what we saw on FOX News?

Armenians are not persecuted in Syria or Lebanon. In fact, Lebanon has one or two Armenian ministers in its cabinet, and even its president, Emile Lahoud, is half-Armenian!

As for the original question: it is not only America. Same thing is happening in Canada, France and other Western countries. While the community in Montreal is still strong, the decline in "Armenianness" is obvious. I think arrogance is involved to a certain degree. In Syria, for example, if you chose not to remain Armenian, what would you be? An Arab? Unlikely. Yet Armenians have this sort of inferiority complex when faced to Americans, or the French or the English, for some reason. If I told you, for example, that a certain piece of Armenian litterature was hailed by Hagop Oshagan, it's more likely to have a smaller impact on you than if I say that it was halied by John Stevens. You might not even know who John Stevens is, and know that Hagop Oshagan is one of our most (if not THE most) accomplished critics, but just the fact that he is an "odar" tends to give him more respect.

Another thing is the "ghetto" aspect. In Haleb or Beirut, every Armenian lived close to each other. That is no longer the case. And then again there is the whole idea that America (or Canada, or wherever) promotes multi-culturalism, so there is this feeling that we're safe, which causes a diminution in effort,as nobody feels the urgency. So in that sense, Loser is right.

The one jumping to conclusions the most is you lately. Get a hold of yourself. I grew up in a predominantly white christian country and there was still some persecution. Your sugarcoating is not gonna make the mideast any less of a dump. Which is why Armenians there tend to stick together more.

You said it yourself, if you're not an Armenian you're an arab so it's not like they have much choice.

Trying to say that armos in europe hold on to their roots more than in the U.S. is the usual generalized crap that gets thrown around in this forum. Off the top of my head I can think of 3 armo churches in new york. I'm sure there's atleast one more. So what do you want? You want us to be flag waiving all the time? Do I look puerto rican to you?