October 1

Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism is a very important concept because we all carry around a certain amount of it



• Ethnocentrism is very damaging to our perceptions of the world



• If we are ethnocentric we cannot view social issues and problems realistically, or with an open mind to attempt to understand root causes of social problems



• If we are going to look at social issues, we must leave our own constricted view of the world and attempt to understand the cultures and views of other people





• What is ethnocentrism?



• In the most general sense, ethnocentrism is small mindedness and dismissing other cultures and people because they differ from your own.



• But ethnocentrism can become much more than that.



• I will describe ethnocentrism as it occurs from the personal to the structural level.



• Ethnocentrism can develop from individual thoughts, to group conceptions and finally become solidified in the social structures.





• There are five elements to ethnocentrism, but not all have to be present to constitute ethnocentrism



• Biologically Inferior



• One group believes that they are innately superior in physical and mental characteristics - arguments for the Bell curve (examples - Nazis)



• Morally corrupt - Thomas Malthus argued that the poor could not control they are reproductive urges and therefore lead to over population. Many cultures and religions are viewed as morally bankrupt.



• Dehumanization of another group



• Because one group feels that another is inferior, they are not truly human
• Treated as animals or "savages" (examples - Native Americans - Columbus)



• Allows people to justify their treatment of other groups because they are inhuman
• Manifest Destiny - no reason to feel guilt for killing and forcibly removing people from their homelands



• The media is very proficient at dehumanizing other cultures.



• Civilizational Mission - One group takes it upon itself because it believes it is superior to "civilize" inferior people



• Native American schools on reservations that stripped indigenous religions, culture etc. [website on the Carlisle school http://home.epix.net/~landis/]



• Missionaries attempt to convert the heathens



• US attempts to force its economic and political system on other peoples - Colonialism



• Ideological Camouflage - People justify their actions through the creation of ideologies and "science"



• Eugenics -
• Between 1911 and 1930, 24 states passed sterilization laws aimed at various social "misfits": the mentally retarded, criminals, and the insane.



• In 1924, when a coalition of eugenicists and some big-business interests pushed through the Johnson Act, severely limiting immigration into the U.S. - immigrants polluted gene pool



• Eugenics movement spread in Nazi Germany



• Slave holders used religion to justify punishments



• Slave holders had to convince themselves that they were doing their slaves a favor by punishing them.



• Since slaveowners viewed their slaves as less than human, property. Beatings were a way of disciplining a slave.



• But the slave owners could not reconcile the contrary ideals of their christian beliefs and the fact they were racists who enslaved and abused fellow human beings.



• So in their journals, they would try to convince themselves that by beating their slaves, they believed that they were bringing the slaves closer to a religious ideal.



• Political Denial - Government denies any involvement or responsibility to the other groups



• Only recently did the US government recognize the racism of placing Japanese Americans in relocation camps during WWII.

• Still rather blasé and uncaring about the treatment of Native Americans especially when it comes to whites desiring tribal lands when they are needed for natural resources, waste disposal etc.



• US government denies the deaths and injuries of civilians in its military action.
• Always underestimates - Panama, Iraq, Serbia etc.
• Civilian deaths are cryptically called collateral damage. [Film: Panama Deception]



• All the elements of ethnocentrism do not have to be present for a thought or an act to be ethnocentric, but there are various ways ethnocentrism plays out.



• Once these elements of ethnocentrism work their way into society, they become widely accepted as normal and many times become part of the institutional structure of society.



• Ethnocentrism also tends to lead to individual explanations of social problems and ignores structural constraints.

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