A kid in Paris with an iPod is on his way to a new Hollywood blockbuster. He's wearing Nikes, a Yankees ballcap and a sweatshirt emblazoned with the Lakers logos. He pauses while he takes a drag of his Marlboro and says "I hate America".

It's not worth pointing out that he's a walking contradiction, because he wouldn't get it, or would pretend he didn't. He looks more American than European. He could be walking the streets of Detroit or Chicago, and nobody would look twice. Another American kid.

European animosity toward America can get personal pretty fast. It's a lazy animosity based most often on trickle down prejudice. The widespread loathing of George Bush and his foreign adventures has given a lot of people permission to indulge in mindless anti-Americanism, frequently undistinguished by any rationale beyond simple bigotry.

American tourists in Europe have run into this attitude in hotels, in stores, on the street. The hostility can be so pointed at times that some American backpackers in Europe have taken to showing the Canadian flag on their person and possessions in order to stand an even chance of getting a ride. Canadians, though now viewed with suspicion as a result of Harper's perceived coziness with Bush, are still granted a pass. A status one Canadian backpacker was keen to confirm by greeting potentially hostile Euros with "hi I'm not-American".

This creeping anti-Americanism has gone way beyond anti-Bush protest, and now includes prejudice toward people-who-happen-to-be-American, many of whom voted Democrat, if they chose to vote at all. Americans tourists who are spending dollars that help to sustain the European economy don't deserve to be treated as though they are members of George Bush's extended family and heir to all of his sins.

Conflating the Bush administration and its policies with the American people is wrong-headed thinking. The majority of Americans reject hard line Bush policies, and have made that clear in poll after poll. American innovation has revolutionized global culture, and most people like it ... even those who have arguments with some of the more troubling aspects globalization. American energy and individualism has helped to create a cultural consciousness that transcends borders and that links people up in cyber space, where nationality matters less than the ability to work the same groove as the people you are communicating with.

Prejudice based on popular stereotypes is always a fool's game. American society and culture is extremely diverse and there is no such thing as a prototypical American any longer. The caricature of the overweight, culturally challenged American tourist with a penchant for gaudy jewelry and mismatched clothes, is just that - a caricature. One that increasingly bears little resemblance to the reality.

What strikes me most of all, throughout the barrage of slurs and put-downs that have been sent in their direction since the Iraq invasion - is the restraint and class many Americans have exercised in the face of this type of abuse. For the few who have reacted negatively, there are the many who have shown character-under-pressure and who do their nation proud.