What is Ethnocentrism?
Ethnocentrism or the ‘Us versus Them mindset’ can be defined as the attitude that other societies’ customs and traditions can be judged in the context of one’s own culture. Simply put it’s the idea that one’s own culture is superior and that it is acceptable to judge other societies on what your society thinks is acceptable. It can be compared to walking around with using one’s culture as a measuring stick to determine whether the other individual’s thought is satisfactory or not.
It is something familiar to each of us. Sadly, even the history books are filled with instances of ethnocentrism. For example, it can be easily argued that it was ethnocentrism that led the first settlers of western culture to subjugate the native populations. After all, they must have thought that the easterners were poor savages walking around unclothed and uneducated. They assumed that nobody wouldn’t mind becoming like the perfectly dressed, shoe-wearing English and Frenchmen and would want to learn to read and write and memorise Plato like them. They never even considered the fact that the so-called “illiterate people” already had their own working economy. They had existed and thrived on those lands generation after generation. All of this was nothing in contrast to the new life they could probably experience doing it the westernised way. Right when the poor savages made sense of that, they’d be better of for sure. Such was the mindset of the so-called “sophisticated westerners”.
A standout amongst the most well-known and the most appalling examples of ethnocentrism to ever happen was amid Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler concluded that he despised Jews, as well as some other groups of people, and had numerous innocent individuals killed in death camps. They did not deserve the torment that they got, and this was plainly an extreme instance of ethnocentrism. While prejudice certainly leads to issues, very rarely in history has ethnocentrism prompted the mass slaughter of a great many innocent individuals.
Another illustration of ethnocentrism that is secured with humour happens
in the comedy movie, American Wedding. After discovering that her grandson is not marrying a Jewish young lady, Jim’s grandma gets to be miserable. Moreover, Michelle’s dad commits the mistake of toasting to his impending in-laws with hopes that they will sit numerous cheerful “shivas” together. After his announcement, he becomes the laughing stock amongst the gathering and the movie unpretentiously demonstrates a Jewish ethnocentrism.
Unfortunately, we see such instances in our daily lives too, when someone
turns up their noses at how a few societies dress or not dress. We see it when one individual disrespectfully asks the other why do those people from that place play their music so loud or if they could just speak quietly. In short, if one people group looks at another people group and says or thinks that they are different from us, and therefore they are strange and beneath us, it is a clear case of ethnocentrism.
I may moreover need to point out the fact that ethnocentrism is not always
terrible or awful. In fact, it is sometimes beneficial and seeks to help give a
people group a feeling of solidarity and belonging. For example, consider the Olympics. Fans from throughout the world enthusiastically observe athletes compete in the name of their own country. They wave flags and hold up their fingers signifying that their country is ”Numero Uno.” The participants even don their country’s flags on their warm-up tracksuits reminding the fellow citizens of their country that they are a part of a bigger whole and despite what the scoreboard may read, their country is the best. Even if it is only short-lived, it binds people of the same country into one.
Also, there are some modernised people from various cultures that seek to
help other cultures. They bring the newer technologies and economic aid from the modernised parts of the world to the economically weaker ones. They do it since they give it a second thought and need to impart their progression in innovations to other individuals.
Ethnocentrism also encourages social solidarity in gatherings and in the public arena by which the strengths of co-operation get to be more grounded. It gives insurance to individuals in a group by creating a feeling of belonging amongst them, Those Members who are feeble, miserable and vulnerable are united by joining hands. It implies it provides compensation to the general population of low status. Moreover, it also encourages patriotism and a sense of nationalism among the individuals of a particular ethnic group or society.
