My father kind of shares the same view as you. Just add the fact that he is a disgruntled immigrant that has never seen America as the so called promised land, but instead was only dragged out here by my mom. Accordingly, he thinks of the American race as he eloquently put it "Sex, drugs, fight, no brains." and then some. He also expounds on the fact that I have to acheive because of my heritege(which I'll leave undisclosed for the sake of erm, racial bias? But some of you may know it already) that the Anglo-American culture and living conditions that has surrvived is merely an catalyst for my sucess. And then he proceeds to me his life story. He was denied a professional education from the start because his parents were not citizens of said country. His mother had applied for a citizenship to get rid of this barrier, but his father had passed. Without a citizenship. My dad wouldn't let that block him though. He sneaked on to the professiona college to learn engineering. Two years after, he was kicked out on account of the restrictions. He eventually reapplied in a regular college of sorts(apparently, it is the equalivelent of a very popular community college) and earned a degree in chemistry.

Translation: It was worthless.

The degree he said, was merely for show. Although nothing worth bragging about, it at least gave him some tangible respect but few jobs were open to him. Nevertheless, he spent the rest of his twenties smuggling products from foreign countries for his sister, who owned such a store that would carry that kind of stuff. And then some other odd jobs. Many years later, he hitched up with my mother and moved to America. Now he is unhappily married with two disobedient children and the unproud owner of a job in a foam making factory. He constantly uses this fact against me and my lazy academic attitude-- he tells me that it is a for a better future. And now people have been throwing at me statisics of college applicants and saying how I'm going to be waitlisted or denied. How all my foreign faternal cousins are aspiring engineers and doctors. And of those who aren't, were merely unlucky, bound more or less by his same restrictions he had endured. And then he consistently banters on why I can't follow this "American" culture or else I'll be a cashier at Jewels for the rest of my life. Then he throws at my face countless "models" to follow. Cousins, friends, friend's relatives, friend's relatives's relatives who make doctors or engineers of themselves. And although it dosen't sound too harsh-- it is slammed into my head so much that I think it has done some sort of psychological damage. Eventually, he fails to see it has some sort of reverse psychology. I do care about my grades but the emphasis upon me is so heavy and well...it's time to get back to topic. That is basically my dad's view on America. I don't really agree, but I'll admit, that I've seen many intelligent people outside of America around my age. And sometimes I just say to myself-- it's okay since I'm American. Yes. That was harsh, wasn't it?