international relations and other forms of lunacy

At this point, I am wondering if it is folly for a white American of Northern European descent to even consider going into the field of international relations.  Even though I’ve lived my entire life in the United States, I have had considerable experience outside of my own culture, and it was enriching and rewarding experience, but it was also extremely difficult at times.  The hardest part was being constantly reminded that American women don’t know how to make a home, American women aren’t devoted to their husbands, marriage means nothing to American women, American women are basically useless.  I never did get used to hearing it and, even now, every time someone startgs banging away about Americans and their lack of family values, I feel like I’ve been hit with a cattle prod.
 
I decided to go back to school and major in international relations and now I realize, I must be a glutton for punishment.  In addition to hearing about Americans and their lack of family values, I get to hear every day how Americans are the sole perpetrators of all social evil there is on earth.  Some days I feel like it would be more rational for me to blow my brains out instead.
 
I have one instructor who has been in the IR department for donkeys’ years and he goes out of his way to praise and flatter the foreign students in the class, while openly showing contempt and disdain for anyone who is white and born in this country.  He is constantly reminding us, with a smirk on his face, that everyone else in the world hates us and that we deserve it. He does everything short of telling us not to go into this field.  Is he typical?  Can I expect more instructors like him?
 
I’ve been in class discussions where students start carrying on about how Americans (they mean white people) are all greedy bloodsucking atheists and sometimes I’ve tried telling them that I didn’t vote for Bush and I don’t approve of U.S. foreign policy and, I swear, they pretend they didn’t hear me.  It’s easier to say “all Americans.”  If they had to say “all Americans except a few,” that’s a longer sentence.
 
I’m community outreach chair for my church and since September 11, I’ve contacted several Islamic organizations and told them that our church would like to develop some kind of community outreach with the Islamic community, not because we want to convert them to Christianity or anything, only that we would like to discuss ways we can show our support and maybe help prevent members of the Islamic community from being targeted and harassed, and do you know, no one has gotten back to me yet.  If I had sent out a bunch of inflammatory e-mails calling Muslims a bunch of terrorists, you can bet I would have had some kind of response.
 
I’m sorry, I realize this discussion is outside of scholarly discourse but it seems to me that what people enjoy the most nowadays is finding blame.  Everyone likes to tell stories about someone getting persecuted, no one is really interested in talking about ways people can help. Some days I stagger out of class feeling so sick I can hardly eat my lunch.  What is the point of going into this field if the only job opening available for me is world boogeyman.  People don’t give up stereotypes easily – I already found that out the hard way.