After serving four years in prison for allegedly murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy in 2007, American Amanda Knox was acquitted yesterday by an Italian court. Her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, was also acquitted. The pair was convicted in 2009 with questionable evidence and prosecutorial claims that Kercher was killed during a satanic sex ritual.
The many facets of the case, including a separate murder conviction for Perugia resident Rudy Guede, are too numerous to discuss here, but what Tufts students should glean from the Amanda Knox case is that frequently reinforced negative stereotypes of Americans can have terrible consequences for students abroad.
Any American who has studied or traveled abroad has doubtlessly encountered — or potentially been a part of — the stereotype of the loud, obnoxious American, stumbling drunkenly on some form of public transportation or even vomiting or urinating in public. Likewise, Americans can be known for getting a bit more than acceptably sloppy and enthusiastic at a club. And even if you haven't encountered the beast itself, locals accustomed to such behavior may have nonetheless stereotyped you as such an American thanks to the actions of your predecessors.
American students abroad have quite the reputation for debauchery and questionable decision-making. And while we at the Daily would never want to suggest that going abroad shouldn't be fun or that it isn't a time to explore, more than a few students manage to cross the line.
Being part of an abroad program offers students a level of security, a buffer zone of safety and order while dealing with culture shock and the stress of international travel and living. Often, students don't have to deal with the hardships of bureaucratic foreign governments, finding a place to live or navigating class registration at a foreign university on their own. As a result, some students feel comfortable lowering their guard and acting in ways that would otherwise be unsafe or disrespectful.
Reinforcing the stereotypes of Americans as loud, crazy, promiscuous and drunken not only makes travel more difficult for other Americans, but can also mean that foreign hosts might take issues of safety less seriously. In particular, American women could become victims of assault or be the recipients of unwanted advances, thus making the abroad experience more dangerous than expected.
This is not to say that the Daily believes that everyone who goes abroad drinks like a fish or can't have wonderfully meaningful cultural and personal experiences. However, in taking safety for granted and throwing caution to the foreign winds, students can make themselves vulnerable or, if nothing else, reinforce negative perceptions of Americans abroad.
