Ethnocentrism in the United States - Essay Example

Ethnocentrism in the United s The phenomenon of ethnocentrism is probably intrinsic to every society and is manifested in multiple forms. However, as more a social group is developed as more ethnocentric tendencies it has. The United States is a wealthy country and has a significant influence on the world political arena, thus ethnocentrism exists in the country in various manifestations from the global national ethnocentrism to racial and cultural discrimination towards other ethnical groups. Ethnocentrism has multiple definitions that concern big and small aspects of people’s prejudices towards those who are different from them. The most universal definition of the phenomenon claims that ethnocentrism is people’s considering their social group as superior and virtuous in comparison with other groups (Hammond & Axelrod 926). In addition, the important aspect of ethnocentrism is that the superiority that people of “the better” groups feel towards others is based on irrational arguments engaged with their prejudiced understanding and consideration of other people and their identity. Some sociological researches associate ethnocentrism with personal narcissism and assert that ethnocentrism in fact has the same roots (Bizumic &Duckitt 438). Thus people rely on their beliefs and assumptions about what is right and what is wrong and how right and wrong are supposed to look like and they start judging other people according to their criteria. However, it turns out that the right and wrong they know are not based on anything except their prejudiced assumptions, which they’ve retrieved from the social group they belong to. Such division on “own” and “others’” might be based on the feeling of belonging to certain social group and hostility towards other groups considering them as strangers and violators of the “own” group’s social borders. A significant fact in consideration of ethnocentrism issue is that educated people are exposed to ethnocentrism more than those who have less education and worse analytical skills, which looks like certain intellectual discrimination. Thus it turns out that assumptions concerning their intellectual superiority make them criticize other people in accordance with criteria of intellectual evolution. Then it is not strange that ethnocentrism has the highest rates in developed, financially and technologically advanced societies like European countries and the United States. However, at the same time these countries constantly fight with different kinds of discrimination and stand for human rights. Psychological researches claim that ethnocentrism is a consequence of some psychological disorders which result from human inner authority, set of right-wing ideology, and conservative beliefs (Ray 89). However, other scientists argue against this position and assert that there is no abnormality in such views, because ethnocentrism is a consequence of certain cognitive beliefs and mythology that exist in each and every culture. Thus it turns out that every culture is characterized by its own understanding of right and wrong life and development, so representatives of any culture estimate representatives of other cultures through the lens of their interpretation of norms. The United States is a multicultural country, which legal laws and norms, in accordance with which all the citizens should live, are based on liberal values and equality of all the people regardless their race, gender, and ethnicity. However, often legal laws and official values don’t correlate with the real state of affairs within a country. Thus the most common kinds of ethnocentrism in the United States are engaged with ethnicities and skin color. Racial prejudice is the most problematic issue among others ethnocentric problems in the United States. Americans are often divided into Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Asians etc. However, the liberal values proclaimed in the United States are supposed to support multiculturalism and decline any arguments that claim that ethnicity defines attitude to people. Thus multiculturalism declines the fact that race, language or culture (particularly so-called “Western” culture) can have some privileges in the United States. The American nation appears to be a confederation of ethnic groups with equal rights and obligations. Although the stance seems to be fair, the real events involving racial and ethnical discrimination in the U.S. prove that ethnical groups in fact don’t have totally equal rights in American society; hence, the minorities are not able to assimilate completely into the culture and feel like they are equal to the majority of Americans (especially the white Americans who have superior position in society) (Rockefeller 1992). Considering different kinds of prejudice it is important to note that historical background often plays crucial role in estimation of other ethnical groups and defining them as hostile or simply inferior. Thus racial discrimination of white Americans towards African-Americans might be based on former superiority of white feudal class over the slavish black race. However, there is no rational background for such beliefs because slavery has been abolished many years ago and keeping perceiving someone according to historical background contradicts intellectual development and progress of humanity. Another example how ethnocentrism is implemented in the United States is people’s attitude to immigrants, especially illegal ones. Researches on media have revealed that there are bunch of messages in media that describe Americans’ negative attitude to immigrants. The increasing journalistic attention to Latinos immigrants quite negatively affects social perception of immigrants by American citizens (Valentino, Brader & Jardina 150). Thus observing that the amount of people who want to live in the United States and are willing to do whatever it takes to stay in the country (even illegally) makes American citizens feel their superiority in comparison with immigrants. Moreover, they start considering their nation as a kind of dream for people from other nations and even separate nations by their prestige in the world arena. Even though American citizens might not reveal their feelings towards immigrants openly, their attitude might be traced in the roles and professions they allow immigrants to obtain in society. Not taking into consideration the fact that illegal immigrants have no rights to gain any well-paid jobs (because it is fair according to legal restrictions), even legal immigrants have little chances to be hired on prestigious jobs and earn as much money as average Americans. The reason for this is not because these legal immigrants are lack of qualification or work experience, but because of the negative non-discretionary attitude of Americans towards them (Valentino, Brader & Jardina 152). In fact, this concern also arises towards ethnical minorities in the United States and is the reason why it frequently happens that non-white people can’t find well-paid jobs, despite having quite a good educational background. However, it might happen in both ways and concern not only white people’s ethnocentrism but also discrimination of white people in ethnical minorities’ communities. Also, there is a specific American kind of ethnocentrism which is implemented in Americans’ attitude to struggle against terrorism and charity for so-called third-world countries. The way that Americans are used to considering the countries which quality of life is way worse than American is totally ethnocentric. The idea to help poor people of Africa or provide financial support for the third-world countries has its basis in ethnocentric attitude of Americans, who think that people who live another way than they do obligatory live worse. However, the background of such criteria is just a kind of national arrogance and condescension to inferior countries. Researches show that the roots of American struggle with terrorism are ethnocentric as well, because estimation of a culture as potentially hazardous is based on beliefs and stereotypes that characterize one community or ethnical group in interpretation of another ethnical group (Kam & Kinder n.pag.). For instance, a detailed examination of people who have Arabian appearance (in American airports) could mean nothing else but certain ethnocentrism. Although this kind of ethnocentrism might be caused by tragic events and terrorist acts and might be simple precautionary measures, still it is difficult to trace what caused such reaction on these people in the first place. The problem of ethnocentrism is quite contradictory, as, according to psychological researches mentioned above, it is intrinsic for every social group, nation, and ethnicity. Discrimination and prejudices are based on people’s feeling of belonging to some social group. However, the tendency of ethnocentrism contradicts liberal values and the principle of equality of human beings. Thus it is very important to provide efficient measures to stop ethnocentric moods in American society. The very first place where people learn about human inequality from early childhood is educational institutions like kindergartens and schools, so there must be some special programs and campaigns that would demonstrate to children that there is no reasons for their ethnocentrism and everyone should be treated equally. Second of all, it is crucial to filter the ethnocentric hidden messages in social media, press, and television, for instance, like journalists’ emphasizing on the fact that Latino illegal immigrants have become a disastrous problem for U.S. government (Valentino, Brader & Jardina 153). The point is that such messages make Americans think of two things; first, they start believing that their own nation and country are some sort of dream for other nations; secondly, they start considering all Latinos as dangerous and harmful, which doesn’t let them see and understand them like the same human beings as they are. It turns out that indeed the problem of ethnocentrism exists in the U.S. in multiple implementations and it needs to be defeated by American society. Works Cited Rockefeller, S. Comment’ in C. Taylor, Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992. Hammond, Ross A. and Axelrod, Robert. "The Evolution of Ethnocentrism". The Journal of Conflict Resolution. 50(2006): 926-936. Bizumic, Boris and Duckitt, John. "My Group Is Not Worthy of Me": Narcissism and Ethnocentrism". Political Psychology. 29(2008): 437-453. Kam, Cindy D. and Kinder, Donald R. "Terror and Ethnocentrism: Foundations of American Support for the War on Terrorism". The Journal of Politics. 69(2007): n.pag. Valentino, Nicholas A.,Brader, Ted and Jardina, Ashley E. "Immigration Opposition Among U.S. Whites: General Ethnocentrism or Media Priming of Attitudes About Latinos?" Political Psychology. 34(2013): 149-166. Ray, John J. "Ethnocentrism — Attitudes and Behaviour". The Australian Quarterly. 43(1971): 89-97. Read More