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'White trash' exchange program
Jewish World Review ^ | Oct. 19, 2001 | Phil Perrier

Posted on 10/19/2001 6:36:39 AM PDT by SJackson

ALL they wanted was to host a German foreign exchange student. Is that so Wrong?

Harry and Brenda Greene of tiny Buchanan, Georgia volunteered their hospitality to 15-year-old German student, Stefan Sipemann. The 40-year-old security guard and his wife even went to the expense of buying a new box spring and mattress. The couple looked forward to meeting Stefan, they thought the experience of hosting the boy would be "enlightening."

The meeting was not to be. Hours before the Greenes were to meet young Stefan at the airport, they were contacted by the agency and told that the boy could not stay with them because their home was a single-wide trailer. The company explained that in Europe mobile homes are considered "holiday homes" and not permanent housing. The Greenes have since told reporters that the agency treated them like "trailer trash."

Apparently, the agency feared that living in a trailer park could expose the student to more than he bargained for.

Someone failed to explain to the Greenes that foreign exchange programs are designed for Upper-Middle-Class suburbanites -- doctors, lawyers and such -- who want to feel good about themselves by telling their golfing buddies "You know, Carol and I are hosting a foreign exchange student this fall."

So rich spoiled brats from other countries come and live with rich people in this country and they compare the quality of the two countries video games.

Meanwhile, Harry and Brenda Greene, oblivious to the socio-economic underpinnings of the process, rode their Hush Puppies into an office and said they'd like to host a student from another country. Seemed logical to them.

The agent looked at them, then looked at their car, figured it would never happen but gave them an application anyway, hoping they would skip the part about filling it out and bringing it back. The Greenes did fill out the application and they did return it. But then, they didn't know they were up against a rigid caste system.

At the last minute someone at the agency bothered to read the Greenes' application and realized they lived in a trailer park; panic ensued, "We can't have some German kid living in a trailer park!... my G-d, when he gets home with a shaved head and 'N.W.A.' tattood on his neck his parents will sue us!"

The decision to reject the Greenes is contrary to the true spirit of a student exchange program; an actual cultural exchange. Taking a kid from Germany and plunking him down in a trailer park in Georgia --- that is an EXCHANGE! A space alien who crashed landed in the trailer park would feel no more out of place than the teutonic teen.

Does the average foreign exchange student get to eat possum? Does he get to marry a girl named Amber, sire a child and get divorced, all in one semester, back at Dusseldorf High? Do teenagers in Germany sneak beer into tractor pulls then shoot street signs on the way home?

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To: Quilla
Pardon the post. I thought this was a Bill and Hillary Clinton thread.

It is, but everyone is speaking in code.

21 posted on 10/19/2001 7:21:53 AM PDT by Focault's Pendulum
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To: SJackson
The only thing worse than this would have been housing him with a gun owner.

No kidding.

22 posted on 10/19/2001 7:24:23 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: NorthGA
I never said, nor do I believe, that people who lived in trailers were necessarily trash, or that there aren't nice trailers. For whatever reasons, choice or necessity, most of the people who live in trailers are not as well off financially as those who live in owner-occupied conventional houses. Fact. Not a moral statement or judgment. As a couple of posters have pointed out, there are many who place other priorities above the typical middle class house in the 'burbs. I have no problem with that. I don't think it's unfair to say, however, that if they were upper middle class they would not have to make such choices - they would be able to afford conventional housing and the various life-style choices.

That said, I do think that, however unfairly, most Americans look down their noses at those who live in trailers and/or trailer parks. Whether there is more of that attitude in places where there are trailer parks or, as in my community, where they simply don't exist, I cannot speculate. Given the fact of that discrimination -- again without saying it's right -- I don't think putting an exchange student in a lower middle/working class familiy (e.g. security guard) living in a trailer is going to give the student a representative taste of typical American middle class life or have a high probability of making the student a strong friend of America.

23 posted on 10/19/2001 7:32:34 AM PDT by CatoRenasci
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To: Betty Jane
Interesting point. Of course, you understand that firearms are an unspoken class issue in Europe: traditionally only the aristocracy was permitted arms, although in countries like Holland there was more a tradition of citizens bearing arms. Hunting and shooting sports are pastimes of the rich in Europe.
24 posted on 10/19/2001 7:37:31 AM PDT by CatoRenasci
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To: Betty Jane
When our daughter was two we hosted a French exchange student. My wife and I had visions of an unpaid au pair. Instead we got a surly anti-American French teenager who had no interest in getting out, speaking English and certainly not helping with the baby (maybe like teenagers in general). The worst part was her hygeine - or the lack thereof. In spite of her being given instructions in writing ("most Americans bathe every day and will expect you to also") she went for over ten days without even a shower. The stink was overpowering. One day we were sitting in the back yard (Summer in Nashville) and she said to me, "It is very hot in the United States." I replied, "Oui, bien sur." Then she said,"tomorrow I think that I will bathe." I endorsed her plan (BTW, she did not bathe and we had to have a confrontation with her). Every since then the phrase, "tomorrow I think that I will bathe" has been a family slogan with us (also "We will NEVER host another foreign student").
25 posted on 10/19/2001 7:39:59 AM PDT by Martin Tell
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To: CatoRenasci
Oh, you mean a place like Columbine? I'm sure the Kleibolds (sp?) would have had him share Jeffry's love of video games, black trench coats, sawed off shotguns, and Marilyn Manson. Who know's, maybe Stefan could have showed him how to make better pipe bombs that work...you elitest POS.

I'm not very pleased with the article's back-handed slams either. They really missed a chance to expound on the virtues of rural America, where the concepts of God, guns, and country are taken seriously all the time, and not just flown from their Lexus SUV window after a tragedy befalls the nation. Instead, the author used it as a platform for pithy comments about WWF and cornpone.

This middle aged couple sound exactly like what I would want represented to other countries; that hard work doesn't guarantee the Ritz, but can guarantee the opportunity to extract some happiness from their own slice of the American Pie. No wonder the Europeans hate us, and desire to stay socialist, when all they see is what the propagandists tell them, a bunch of lazy classists, who are more worried about their stock portfolio than what is happening to the Constitution. Show them what our working class is about, and why it strives to better itself, and how it still can, instead of the spoiled and pampered elites.

26 posted on 10/19/2001 7:44:08 AM PDT by cport
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To: CatoRenasci
most of the people who live in trailers are not as well off financially as those who live in owner-occupied conventional houses.

Our rural neighborhood and others in the Texas hill country is nothing but single wides and double wides on 2-5 acres each. The vast majority of the people living in our neighborhood make in excess of $75,000/yr. Our yards are manicured to perfection, beautiful decks, hot tubs, the works...no trailer trash here, just honest hard working people that prefer the country life. If it is houses you prefer, there is the slum area down by the lake where all the drug addicts live. Get a life.

27 posted on 10/19/2001 7:49:23 AM PDT by ravingnutter
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To: aomagrat
As little boys, my bro, Mom and I lived for a short time in a sheepherder's caravan, the first, and still to us, the finest rolling mobile home imaginable. It had a stove, beds, storage cabinets and a canvas roof. It was pulled by a two horse-power engine accompanied by two very smart dogs, our own horses plus four thousand sheep. We were entranced and the experience did nothing to "damage" our tender psyches. Years and much life experience later, we still reminisce about our true "mobile home."
28 posted on 10/19/2001 7:50:49 AM PDT by Paulus Invictus
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To: Martin Tell
Please allow me this observation. Germany is the country which started two world wars and fostered such humanitarian souls as Hitler and we're concerned about leaving a good impression on them...?
29 posted on 10/19/2001 7:53:12 AM PDT by Snardius
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To: Martin Tell
When our daughter was two we hosted a French exchange student. My wife and I had visions of an unpaid au pair.

Was the girl supposed to be a student in high school or an employee? When our children were small, we had several au pair girls from Europe, but they were all paid under the program we used. Nice girls, some had better work ethics than other, some were better educated than others, some got a great deal out of their year in the US, others less. We included them in all familiy activities and vacations on an equal footing, as the concept au pair dictates. In several cases we met their parents or other relatives who visited. Overall, a wonderful experience.

If she was supposed to be a student, I should think your view of her as an upaid au pair was unreasonable and denigrating. If you went to Europe expecting to be a student, taking part in typical student activities and spending your time (when not studying) with other students, I'm sure you'd be surly if treated as an employee and put to work.

French personal hygiene habits vary, I have met Frenchmen and women whose habits are similar to those you describe, but also Frenchmen and women whose hygiene would satisfy the most fastidious.

30 posted on 10/19/2001 7:53:41 AM PDT by CatoRenasci
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To: Focault's Pendulum
LOL, loose lips.
31 posted on 10/19/2001 7:54:34 AM PDT by Quilla
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To: SJackson
This is probably Phil Perrier's idea of a joke. He writes like a posturing little queer anyway. He's a stand-up comic, and is probably making this whole thing up.
32 posted on 10/19/2001 8:02:04 AM PDT by Twodees
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To: ravingnutter
Get a life.

Better yet, perhaps he should purchase a double-wide and learn what he's talking about. I will put my Chopin up against any non-concert pianist, but that doesn't make me better than you. But I would damned sure prefer having you as a neighbor and friend than him.

33 posted on 10/19/2001 8:02:24 AM PDT by jammer
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To: ravingnutter
I have to amend that: provided you are not an attorney, FBI agent or Federal Marshal. Those folks ARE scum.
34 posted on 10/19/2001 8:03:52 AM PDT by jammer
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To: CatoRenasci
I meant this post as a light-hearted view of my own experience with the program - I certainly did not expect to be cast as Simon Legree. To clarify, we knew all about the program and what was expected; we bent over backwards to include her in all activities. We HOPED she would help watch our daughter from time-to-time, certainly less that what we would have expected if she had been a member of our own family. Not only would she not help out around the house at all, she did not want to participate in any of the activities we planned for her, nor would she willingly participate in any of the group activities the other exchange students were doing. It was obvious she was here only because her parents made her and she detested America. I suppose we got a lemon; I know others who had charming students, but we do not think it is worth the hassle and risk to do it again. Also, I disagree about your views on European bathing habits. Have you every been in a crowded Paris Metro in mid-Summer? Euros do not bathe as often as Americans, as a rule (I know some do). I lived in Europe for six years so I know what I am talking about.
35 posted on 10/19/2001 8:04:43 AM PDT by Martin Tell
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To: Don Myers
""Does he get to marry a girl named Amber"

Only if the trailer is in W.Va. and Amber is his sister.

36 posted on 10/19/2001 8:06:56 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: cport
I, too, was a bit miffed at how the story went from being anti-elitist to nothing more than a Hee-Haw skit. I've known plenty of decent working class people and more than a few rich folk I wouldn't bother to p**s on if they were on fire.
37 posted on 10/19/2001 8:07:16 AM PDT by Dakmar
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To: NorthGA; CatoRenasci
I take it you have never seen a nice trailer - or a nice family living in a trailer.

An important issue here is the agency apparently hadn't either. If they checked this family out, they knew all about the living conditions, so did Stefan.

CatoRenasci I do think that, however unfairly, most Americans look down their noses at those who live in trailers

Urban dwellers and media, yes. Most other Americans, probably not. Many find that particular attitude kind of funny. Living in a "trailer" or prefab home doesn't automatically qualify you as "trailer trash". If it wasn't for the construction unions, we'd see far more of these in northern urban areas.

I don't think putting an exchange student in a lower middle/working class familiy (e.g. security guard) living in a trailer is going to give the student a representative taste of typical American middle class life or have a high probability of making the student a strong friend of America.

Quite typical, normal Americans, teachers, policemen, firemen, live in manufactured housing. But often not the people these programs are looking for. I think you have to recognize that are typically marketed to middle and upper class families, and that's where the families want their kids placed. It's not the Peace Corps. They are certainly beneficial, but they aren't really about learning about "middle class life" anywhere but in the brochures.

38 posted on 10/19/2001 8:15:08 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: ravingnutter
Our rural neighborhood and others in the Texas hill country is nothing but single wides and double wides on 2-5 acres each. The vast majority of the people living in our neighborhood make in excess of $75,000/yr. Our yards are manicured to perfection, beautiful decks, hot tubs, the works...no trailer trash here, just honest hard working people that prefer the country life. If it is houses you prefer, there is the slum area down by the lake where all the drug addicts live. Get a life.

Isn't there a large city near you? Next time you move, get a contractor from there, some union tradesman. Have them stick build the same home for you for twice as much. You'll help the economy.

39 posted on 10/19/2001 8:18:45 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: Martin Tell
Actually, I don't think we disagree on European bathing habits -- we agree that most aren't as fastidious as Americans, but some are.

It's still not clear from your post whether the girl you had was supposed to be an employee or student. Was the program a true student exchange (such as American Field Service) or was it one of the au pair progams where the students know they are expected to work and are paid a small stipend for pocket money? I do think the expectations for the two are very different. That said, it sounds like you got a real lemon. We never had a French girl, our were all Norwegian, Danish or German.

40 posted on 10/19/2001 8:18:58 AM PDT by CatoRenasci
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