The Growth Of Ethnocentrism

I wrote this for my government class, it in not directly related to media, but I would like for people to read it, hopefully you can get something out of it.



Ethnocentrism grows like a tree; the seed is planted when a blind eye is turned, it sprouts when people allow ignorance to build, grows leaves from the stem of ignorance and connects to the trunk of culture.

One’s culture plays a great role in the growth of ethnocentrism, like the trunk to a tree an individual’s culture supports them. As Ruth Benedict put it, “From the moment of his birth, the customs into which (an individual) is born shapes his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk he is a little creature of his culture.” The most significant of all aspects that one’s culture teaches, are values. Some cultures may teach to value material items, or maybe the land of which they were born. Perhaps some teach to be open to other’s beliefs, or maybe it nurtures fear of things unknown. As Dorothy Thompson made clear by the words, “There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings.” When your culture keeps you blind to issues in the world, ignorance grows and fear is installed into your being. “You have to be taught to hate and fear, it has to be drummed in your dear little ear. You have to be carefully taught.”- Oscar Hammerstein

When people in society are ethnocentric, unable to except others for who they are, the results can be unthinkable. Social and racial segregation has haunted the human race since the time we first congregated, people have been beaten, spit on, even murdered due to these issues. As history has proven when people of significance fear others and become ethnocentric, this is when the most devastation occurs. “The most destructive element in the human mind is fear. Fear creates aggressiveness.”-Unknown

I think that a person could reasonably argue that most conflicts in history started due to ethnocentrism. The seed of ethnocentrism is planted when people turn a blind eye to matters of the world. When people do not consider the other side of things, they cannot relate in any way. Not being able to relate ends all chances of acceptance, or even tolerance. Tolerance is a powerful force in human nature, because if something cannot be tolerated, then it is most likely brought to an end, no matter what it is. When citizens are ethnocentric the results can be heartrending, but when people with power become ethnocentric the results can be heartbreaking. Governments have done horrendous acts in the past, when a leading system is infected with an infectious disease, the plague quickly spreads. The Holocaust, the slaughtering of Native Americans, the genocide that is occurring in Sudan has all taken place due to ethnocentrism. The only thing worse than the ignorance that causes ethnocentrism, is that when you are ignorant you know not what you do. You are blind to what you have done or what you are doing, and you will keep doing it until you learn, if you learn, that it is wrong. Like a blind man who is not familiar with his surroundings, you will continually keep hitting your shins on tables and walking into walls until you finally learn where you are going.

Though many people do not realize it, ethnocentrism is as great of a force as it has ever been. It is the twenty first century and many people are under the impression that racism is behind us. “To assume makes an ass out of you and me.”-Unknown. This assumption is just another seed that is being planted, the beginning of more problems. In order to truly end ethnocentrism we need to step into other’s shoe’s, see where they are coming from and how they got there, only then can we really see where they are.