Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism
is a major reason for divisions amongst members of different ethnicities,
races, and religious groups in society. Ethnocentrism is the belief of
superiority is one's personal ethnic group, but it can also develop from racial
or religious differences.
Ethnocentric individuals believe
that they are better than other individuals for reasons based solely on their
heritage. Clearly, this practice is related to problems of both racism and
prejudice.
While many people may recognize the
problems, they may not realize that ethnocentrism occurs everywhere and every
day at both the local and political levels.
Ethnocentrism
in History
Present
Day Politics
To solidify the definition of
ethnocentrism, looking at the present day politics of the United States is
helpful. With instances occurring since its conception, the United States has often thought of itself as
more powerful, more economically sound, and just generally "better"
than other nations. This has been shown by the country's tendency to
dabble in situations occurring in other nations, such as the country's current
involvement with affairs in the Middle East.
Although the idea of every citizen
in the United States belonging to one ethnicity is certainly debatable, since
the country has citizens who originally came from all over the world, the
feeling of national pride can stand in for a pure ethnicity in this case.
European
Imperialism
Imperialism,
the practice of taking over other lands, was heavily practiced by Europe
starting in the sixteenth century. As most individuals know, the colonies in
the United States were one of the regions that the Europeans tried to control
from overseas. They also overtook lands in Africa.
They believed both Africa and the Americas to be primitive societies based on
hunting and farming, and felt that they needed to take over these nations in
order to bring them up to speed with modern technologies.
Traces of this sense of European
ethnocentrism are still evident today. For example, in schools in Europe, world
studies courses tend to focus almost solely on the history of the United States
and Europe, and largely ignore other parts of the world.
