Prejudice in Interracial Relationship - Essay Example

. Prejudice in Interracial Relationship Number and Section Paper In order to bring a more interesting and realistic perspective in this paper, the analysis about prejudice/bigotry in interracial relationships shall be lifted from a personal relationship of a cousin, Jenny who had an Asian boyfriend name Kim. Her boyfriend was an international student (from Korea) taking up his post graduate degree here in the United States. The nature of relationship, how they were received in the group and particularly the discriminationa and insults that Kim received from the friends and some relatives of Jenny prove to be interesting to qualify as subject of analysis of this paper.

Asians are judged by most Americans, as boring, culturally dead and often too smart for their own good1 . This was succinctly encapsulated in the remark of one of Jenny’s friends where she blurted “An Asian, Jeez, what did you find them interesting? They all look the same with their chinky eyes and they are boring!” and “are you flunking in math that you have to had an Asian for a boyfriend?” Some of Jenny’s friends also find Kim’s ways to be exotic and strange whose amusement borders to condescension.

This phenomena or reaction of Jenny’s friends and some relatives is a universal attitude of behaviour of people when they encounter something unfamiliar or not their own2. This is the syndrome of ethnocentrism where attitudes include seeing people outside of one’s group as contemptible while one’s own group to be the virtuous and the standard of cultural correctness. This could go either way and was best portrayed in the introduction of Claudine Chiawei OHearns’ book Half and Half where Chiawei’s parents were reluctant to accept to accept the ethnic background of the couple.

In her father’s side, the Hearn’s were not excited to accept somebody of Chinese descent to be a part of their family. The family of her mother also felt the same and even went as far as hiring an investigator to check their distrust on her father’s background3. Needless to say, this manifest not only the unaccepting attitude of an in-group towards an outgrop but also the distrust of an in-group of anything foreign. The reaction of Jenny’s friends towards her boyfriend is not unique and in fact only reinforces the general perception of American society towards Asians.

They are not necessarily evil persons only that they equate having the right boyfriend to be somebody like them. Asian Americans are already discriminated in the US and this is expected especially to those who grew up in Asia albeit this is not a desirable reception. Jenny’s friends reference of Asians are their classmates whom they judge to be uninteresting because they are outside of their in-group. They think of Asians as only good in academics and that is all that makes them worthwhile and everything else is boring.

For sure, the Asian in-group will also have their ethnocentric judgments against people outside their racial in-group. This attitude is a typical syndrome of people belonging to a racial in-group. This ethnocentric attitude is a typical behavior of people especially those who lack exposure in diversified cultural environment4. People will always see their own set of values as universal and this could be reinforced by the group they belong especially if such group is racially homogenous which in Jenny’s case, dominantly caucasians which has strong ethnocentric tendency.

Ethnocentric behavior is also characterized by cooperation among in-groups and non-cooperation among out-groups5 and this can be seen in their disapproval of Jenn’s boyfriend Kim. The interesting angle in their case is that Kim’s family also felt the same way about Jenny’s who has the stereotype of American girls as “dumb and loose”. The only difference was that Kim’s family did not show it to Jenny while Jenny’s friends were candid in their dislike for Kim. Kim family’s covert disapproval of Jenny perhaps can be attributed due to the fact that they are visitors in America and that their son is a student of American university and they do not want to invite trouble in a country that is not theirs.

In sum, both the family and friends of both parties had ethnocentric tendencies which is likened to O’Hearn’s parents. With Jenny’s friends, their prejudice of Asians can be referenced back to their classmates whom they perceived as faceless bunch of geeks and virtuosos6 without social life and therefore boring. With Kim’s family, their prejudice to Jenny originated from the stereotype of Hollywood films where American girls are often portrayed as loose and liberated. The prejudice of both groups (from Jenny’s side as well as Kim’s side) only shows that ethnocentrism is a universal syndrome albeit undesirable.

Bibliography Axelrod, Robert and Hammond, Ross. “The Evolution of Ethnocentric Behavior”. Revised version of a paper prepared for delivery at Midwest Political Science Convention, April 3-6, 2003, Chicago, IL. Available at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~axe/research/AxHamm_Ethno.pdf [accessed on February 17, 2013. Chen, Carolyn. “Asians: Too Smart for Their Own Good?” Available on-line at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/opinion/asians-too-smart-for-their-own-good.html?_r=0. Accessed on February 17, 2013 Chiawei O’Hearn, Claudine.

“Half and Half”. Pantheon Books, New York. 1998