Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of one’s
ethnic group. Though it sounds like ethnocentrism is bad, ethnocentrism has
positive and negative qualities. Teaching children to believe that there
country is the best country is a form of positive ethnocentrism. Promoting the positive views of patriotism to
one’s country would also constitute as positive ethnocentrism. It's positive because you are not ashamed of
who you are, you openly embrace your heritage, and you are somewhat keen on
spreading this cultural knowledge to others around you. On the other hand, it’s
negative if an individual may have been raised in such a culture that stressed their
culture as superior to all others. If one is too extreme in their nationalist
sentiment, people will think you have no respect for other ethnicities, races,
or nations.
I believe that Americans can be very ethnocentric. When
Americans travel abroad or learn about other countries, we express it most when
we view other ways of living and doing things as wrong rather than as
different. We do this for many reasons. I think one of the most common reasons
is because that the US is a very wealthy country compared to most and our infrastructure
works well most of the time. This makes us think that our ways are always better
and some of the ways other people do things are wrong. Americans are not the
only ones who are ethnocentric. Every ethnic group or nation can be
ethnocentric. When we travel abroad we also become exposed to other people’s
ethnocentrism.
So, fellow classmates, when we reach England, it is good for
us to recognize that they may evaluate some of “our ways” of doing things as
wrong, not just different. When this happens, we must be prepared to respond in
a polite manner. One good thing that comes out of this if it happens to us is
that it makes us more sensitive to how it feels and in return, it encourages us
to not be ethnocentric.
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