American Ethnocentrism Issue - Essay Example

American Ethnocentrism When a group of people come together, they associate themselves with a certain culture and norms, and thus become an ethnic group. A times, one engraves a tendency of down looking other people’s culture and grows a perception of his own culture to be the best, wanting to change the world primarily into his norms. This aspect of entailing one’s ethnic group or race to be the most important is what is referred to as Ethnocentrism. The belief of superiority can be defined in every life sector either in political system, social customs, language, and even extended into religion. Ethnocentrism is one of the maladies affecting many countries in the world and has resulted to misunderstanding among many countries (Salter, K. 2002). The ethnocentrism condemnation subsequently embraces multiculturalism. It occurs when other race tend to emulate other group’s way of doing things resulting to inferiority of the group. Any ethnocentric group will criticize other people way of doing things for they want to be and remain being the best without recognizing their failures. America, being the sole superpower in the world, it is full of ethnocentrism. Americans always like to be recognized and followed by other continents regardless of what they are doing is right or wrong. America became the greatest nation ever under the guidance and sustenance of George Washington’s vision of ‘one people’s nation’. The reason behind it is that America is made up people from numerous ethnic groups. Under this achieved protective canopy of unity, fear of disunity has grieved people (Peter 2007). America is one of the super power countries which has become more biological, religious, democratic, and ethnic though ancestral difference combined with political power still exist among people. When there is self- identity as Hispanic American, African American, Jewish American, Asian American, Arab American, black American or white American, it indicates a seductive belongings of ethnocentrism upon individual Americans. This diversity is encouraged by the political boundaries isolating the ethnic groups. This results from the variation of domestic and foreign policies traveled to realize the greatness of togetherness (Salter, K. 2002). In regard to the law, there is the tradition common law whereby there is suppositions of the legal fictions from the true facts taken by the court of law though they are necessarily untrue. Today these legal fictions are important in molding domestic rules fitting new situation. A god example is in the field of cyber law by Benoliel D. Ethnocentrism appears in the cultural field, a good example is between America and the Vietnamese. This was evidently shown during the cross cultural study in cultural Reflection of Vu Thi Thanh Huyen Television Advertisements. The study was analyzing cultural commercials whereby a total of each 50 advertisements were collected. The results from the study marked differences and similarities between the cultural values of Americans and Vietnamese. The research offered bridging suggestions in the cultural gap after they gave a comparison between Vietnamese and American commercial advertisement. During this study, the American dictionary was used to obtain the literature results especially in the meaning of culture, art, morals, law, belief, and other habits. Analysts argued that the fact American dictionary was used was an ethnocentrism act since it gave them an upper hand in the comparative study.. The manifestation and proportion are the bases defining each community’s identity. However cultural values of Americans are a diversified one due to its compression of different immigrants (Xiaohong W. 2009). The other area consisting of the preference of one cultural norms can be seen in the automobiles. Making a comparison between Japanese and American automobiles it will be found that American automobiles has been copying Japanese manufacturing process since 1970s. These production process show Japanese techniques of lean production. Americans have been withdrawing their production from ‘lean’ to extremes of globalization and the production in the low wages region in Mexico though they still use the ‘lean technique’. This has been bringing a fierce competition since both have the potential to design and manufacture cars having all current brands due to their automated capabilities. After America got the lean techniques, American automakers have produced stronger vehicles but they still talk of it as their own invention (Ankerl, G. 2000). The issue is not so much about technology transfer and American copying technology from Japanese. The issue that bring about American ethnocentrism in motor vehicles is the fact that most of their car models are designed with regard to Japanese automotive systems. However, there are very few instances in which Japanese influence on American automobile industry is recognized. Fore example United States is manufacturing attractive solid F150 while on the other hand Japanese models such as Ford Fusion are unproven and not likely to be purchased by Americans. It will be found out that due to the America superiority, Americans believe that what is American is good but what is foreign is good. Despite having good model vehicle which are friendly to the environment and cost saving, Americans still consider Americans cars as the best. This has force most Japanese cars to be blended with Americans components to make them good for Americans. The reason behind it is to Americanize the Japan made automobiles. Although this has been considered as a form of economic activity since profit goes to Americans, Americanizing Japanese automobile is ethnocentrism (Ankerl, 2000). The war in Iraq is another area where American ethnocentrism can be seen. The reason behind it is that America being a super power wants to be recognized all over the world. The war started in April 2001, when they invaded Iraq six months before the September 11th attack. The official reason was to get better ways of accessing the Iraq oil. Though a super power, America has no moral obligation to invade other countries on baseless accusation. United States started this war to solely gain from the oil reserves in Iraq and also to overthrow Saddam and implant democracy which Americans believe is the best form of government. Through ensuring American owned companies, United States has been able to gain economically while Iraqis die day after day fighting each other. The war on Iraq was baseless and it was just another way of showing American political ethnocentrism (Peter 2007). In vis-à-vis of ethnocentrism I firmly disapprove it. Ethnocentrism is a destructor rather than contractor as in the case of Iraq’s war. The War in Iraq has been more destructive than what was previously argued that it would construct Iraq to a more democratic nation. Ethnocentrism denies a person a sense acceptance. Most people will always like to be associated with the ‘greatest ethnic group’ rather than the minority. This factor has brought a lot conflict in most societies especially in Muslim society which have strict code of conduct. The young in these societies want to be associated with American culture bring in conflict in the society. Ethnocentrism can also lead to loss of individual cultural identity. Work Cited Ankerl, G. Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva: INU PRESS, 2000 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070618180143AAcC3rn deprived on 2nd Dec Peter W. Galbraith 2007.The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War without End Salter, F. K. 2002. Risky Transactions. Trust, Kinship, and Ethnicity. Oxford and New York: Berghahn. Xiaohong Wei.” Department of Foreign Languages”. On Negative Cultural Transfer in Communication between Chinese and Americans Sichuan Agricultural University” Journal of intercultural communication 21 (2009) Read More