Course Goal 2 – Define Ethnocentrism
In the movie Outsourced, Todd the American, was very ethnocentric at the beginning of the film.
Here are other examples of of
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is a major reason for divisions
amongst people of different ethnicities, races, and religious groups in
society. Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of 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
European Imperialism
Imperialism, the
practice of taking over other lands, was heavily practised by some European
countries, 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.
The Mandate of Heaven
One of the most
prominent examples of ethnocentrism was the system developed out of the idea of
the "Mandate of Heaven" proliferated by the Chinese philosopher Confucias. The "Mandate of Heaven"
meant that the Chinese felt that they had received divine power which entitled
them to exert heavy rule over the citizens, and that they had power over the
rest of the world. In fact, the Emperor was referred to as the "Son of
Heaven" exemplifying the intense control he had over the people.
While this system
of government formally ended in the nineteenth century, some scholars believe
that the Chinese ethnocentrism lives on.
Nazi Germany
One of the most
well-known and the most horrible examples of ethnocentrism to ever occur was
during Nazi Germany. Adolf
Hitler decided that he
hated Jews, as well as some other groups of people, and had many innocent
people slaughtered in concentration camps. They did not deserve the torture
that they received, and this was clearly an extreme case of ethnocentrism.
While prejudice certainly leads to problems, very rarely in history has
ethnocentrism led to the mass slaughter of millions of innocent people.
Ethnocentrism In Literature
In Zora Neale
Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, the main character Janie Starks
is a very light skinned black woman. For this, the other black women in her
town are often are full of contempt for her. She seems to straddle the line
between black and white at various points in the novel. This novel indicates that ethnocentrism is an extremely broad topic
because even within one's own ethnicity or race, divisions will be found.
The writing illustrates important components of ethnocentrism in history as
well, because before the victory of the Civil Rights era, blacks would often
try to "pass" for whites, and those who succeeded were often scorned
by other blacks.
The
Merchant of Venice
by Shakespeare portrays an intense disagreement
between the Jew, Shylock, and the Christian, Antonio. Antonio constantly scorns
Shylock for being a Jew, which ultimately culminates in one of the most famous
speeches of all time, where Shylock asks:
"If you prick us, do we not
bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And
if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
When he says
"us", Shylock is referring to are Jews.
Conclusions
As seen by
Shylock's speech, ethnocentrism is a powerful force that weakens human
relations. Shylock's point is that
despite the cultural differences, we are all still human. There is no
intrinsic difference between a Jew and a Christian, a black and a white, a
Chinese citizen and a German citizen, and so forth. Although Shylock is painted
as the villain of The Merchant of Venice, perhaps we can all take a
lesson from him in order to avoid unfair prejudices that result from
ethnocentrism.
