Role of Ethnocentrism in American Culture

Ethnocentrism refers to evaluating other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture (Hester, 2019). Based on this, ethnocentrism can be explained as judging other cultures based on what an individual perceives as right based on their own culture. Ethnocentrism played a crucial role during the interaction between western Native Americans and white American western migrants; the white American western migrants used their culture to evaluate the western native American culture portraying it as inferior. Based on this, the native people were considered needful of civilization regarding their way of doing things, including how they dressed. This stereotyping played a role in downgrading the natives, which means they perceived their culture as superior. As a result, they wanted to assimilate the natives such that they could abandon their outdated culture and adopt a more westernized culture as a way of civilization. Ethnocentrism is bad for some cultures because it can lead to the erosion of cultural beliefs and other cultural rites deemed primitive by white western migrants.

Ethnocentrism often leads to incorrect assumptions about others’ behavior based on an individual’s norms, values, and beliefs (Panicker & Sharma, 2021). In extreme cases, a group of individuals may see another culture as wrong or immoral and, because of this, may try to convert, sometimes forcibly, the group to their ways of living. Ethnocentrism is a common issue in the United States, and this can be seen at various levels. For example, in America, a person is supposed to look someone in the eyes when speaking to them. Americans believe that looking a person in the eyes means that they are confident in what they are saying or not lying. However, in other non-American cultures, an individual is not supposed to look someone in the eyes when speaking to them as it is considered rude and a lack of respect. It becomes ethnocentrism when either culture believes looking someone in the eyes or not looking someone in the eyes is a better custom than the other culture. To Americans, looking a person in the eyes while speaking is the superior culture; thus, it should be adopted even by non-Americans.

Another example of ethnocentrism is how many Americans feel everyone, including immigrants, should speak English and how people are judged by American people negatively for not speaking English or not speaking English correctly. In the United States, there are many immigrants from different parts of the world, some of whom are competent in speaking and writing in English; however, others have problems communicating in English as they have never been to an English class. These people are often ridiculed due to their inability to communicate in English. To Americans, English is a superior language, and they expect everyone they meet ought to speak English fluently. Finally, American people think that immigrants are taking jobs from American people and that they should not be taking jobs from Americans. It is ethnocentrism because American people believe that only American people have the right to have American jobs. All these beliefs that America has a superior culture impact America’s international relation, especially regarding religious beliefs. Most Americans are Christian and tend to perceive their religion as dominant over the Islamic region. As a result, there has been a conflict between American and Middle-East countries as America associates Muslims with terrorism (Byman, 2021).

References

Byman, D. (2021). The good enough doctrine: Learning to live with terrorism. Foreign Aff., 100, 32.

Panicker, A., & Sharma, A. (2021). Ethnocentrism: Enemy of Productive and Happy Multicultural Workplace. Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT), 12(5), 756-760.

Hester, J. P. (2019). Guest Editorial: Ethnic, Ethos, Ethnicity, Ethnocentrism. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 12(1), 2.