Homogeneity

Gary's post. It's about the 10^th of May. We're in Eskişehir Turkey and I'm sharing here an observation that I've had thoughts of before, but here it coalesced. Homogeneity. Erasure. Culture.

I've seen plenty of it in the US. Sure, the downtown area of Portland, Maine is quite different from New Orleans or St. Augustine or Charleston. But head out into the suburbs and you cannot tell which downtown you happen to be near. They're the same. The same fast food. The same big box stores. The same failing mini-malls. The same car dealerships. The same little league diamonds. The same suburban churches.

 

Walk the sidewalks here in Eskişehir or Izmir or Kusadasia, and there are jewelry stores, shoe stores, green grocers, a shop selling nuts and dried fruit, another with bread and pastries, or kabobs and doners (wraps, like a gyro), clothing, etc. It's all very different from a pedestrian way in the US, but here, it just repeats. Sure there's an area which is more western or European with a cafe, or a pizza restaurant, or for burgers. But that Western area in Eskişehir is just like the one in Izmir.

The people here are Caucasian. A few are of Arabian descent. None from Africa or the Orient, and as an American I stand out visibly, even though I would consider myself Caucasian. (a topic for some other post.) Since everyone walks everywhere, they tend to be skinny – to – fit, very rarely overweight. They are fashionable with western style clothes, good haircuts and styling, and clean. There's no ratty t-shirts or scruffy blue jeans. Many women wear a variation of a hijab, and a few men still wear suits. Everyone looks middle class. Everyone.

There are many Muslim mosques with towering minarets. We hear rumors that a Christian church or Jewish synagogue might exist, but we have yet to see one.

All this is not by accident. In the 1920s and 30s +/-, Turkey engaged in some ethnic cleansing. You may be familiar with the Armenian Genocide, but they also force-ably removed Kurds and Greeks and probably others. The Ottoman Empire was collapsing and they wanted Turkey for the Turks. And they were largely successful.

Theirs is not an isolated incident. Germany tried to do it. In the United States we've been striving toward a similar goal. We pushed all our Native Americans west onto reservations located in inhospitable deserts. We're currently trying to expunge the nation of Latinos. But it's not really the Latinos we're after. It's their culture. The goal is to achieve a homogeneous American culture. You can be Latino if you assimilate. You can be Chinese if you fit in with society. You can be Gay if you don't try to make anyone else Gay. You can be trans if you pass as one of 'us'. You can be Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist but don't try to compete with Christian culture. We're even making it difficult for Canadians to live in the US.

It's all about culture. It may be framed as an expulsion of individual criminals. But it's not. It's an attempt to erase any culture that doesn't fit the patriarchal blueprint. The Jewish culture was purged from Germany. Latino culture is being purged from the US. The generification of culture is real. Some people may celebrate it, but I do not.

When expulsion and assimilation works, we get homogeneity. That's not something that I look forward to. Here in Eskişehir I can get a doner (gyro) or lamucun (very thin pizza) on every other block. I can get a very few other middle-eastern, Arabic or certain European foods. I cannot get Chinese or Korean. Sourdough bread is unheard of, as is rye or whole wheat or pumpernickel. Breads come in a variety of shapes, but inside it's the same white fluff. Not unlike suburban US. In downtown Portland Maine I can get lobster or other seafood. New Orleans has a rich culinary diversity. In central Boston I can get Cuban, Jamaican, Brazilian, Ethiopian, British, French, Nepali, Indian, Japanese, and Fusion.

That's part of the lure of travel, especially away from the resorts and 5-star hotels where homogeneity reigns. So we get an AirBnB in the working class neighborhood in the city. We ride the local busses and trains. We shop the local grocery. We walk and hang out in the neighborhood parks. And we learn. And we comment. And we reflect. And we learn some more.

There are many people for whom this is not an attractive lifestyle. There are many who embrace the familiar, and I am not disparaging that. It's just not for me. We'll continue our journey through the culture of Turkey and into many other cultures, and keep on observing and commenting.