First and foremost, I have no intention of causing any sort of political debate amongst each other, these are just my personal thoughts and views that I believe are relevant to this week’s blog entry. This week we discussed ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is an “exaggerated tendency to think the characteristics of one’s own group or race is superior to those of other groups or races” (PSU 2017, Drever, 1952, p. 86). After reading about ethnocentrism, the first person that popped into my mind was the President-Elect, Donald Trump. Now when I say Mr. Trump popped into my mind, it was not necessarily solely him, but rather a small number of his supporters.
After it was apparent Mr. Trump was going to become the next president of the United states, some people were happy and some were not so happy. What had happened in the days and weeks following the election were unimaginable. Call me naïve, but I did not expect to see as much hate spewed upon minority groups as there was. Muslim women having their hijabs ripped off, black families waking up to hate speech spray-painted on their houses, men and women of Middle-eastern descent immediately pegged terrorists and being called that in public. Countless videos have popped up with his supporters spewing hate rhetoric in the name of Trump. “Go back to the Middle-east you terrorist f***, Trump is president now!” Things like these were said to other American citizens. If this does not scream ethnocentrism, I am not sure what does.
As it states in our lesson, “The idea behind ethnocentrism is that people who are not part of our group are perceived as being all the same because they aren’t one of us, so we treat them differently (usually not as well)” (PSU 2017). That is exactly what some of Mr. Trump’s supporters are doing to other citizens of our nation just because they look different or practice another religion. Because someone is Muslim does not mean they are a terrorist. Just like being white doesn’t make you a part of the KKK. However, these radical supporters of Trump have taken this ethnocentric approach.
But why do they act this way? Could it be the tradition of past generations? As our book states, “Traditions provide people with a “mindset” and have a powerful influence on their moral system for evaluating what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or not.” (Moran, Abramson, Moran pg. 17). This could possibly be a part of the reason why. Parents pass down their views from generation to generation, instilling these thoughts in the youth of our country.
Now why these supporters believe they can get away with these things in the name of Trump is another discussion. I know Mr. Trump has repeatedly condemned these actions and has asked his supporters to stop. With that being said, I believe he could approach it in a better way. Our book points out what a global leader should do. “The global leader is sensitive to cultural differences, appreciates a people’s distinctiveness and effectively communicates with individuals from different cultures. A global leader does not impose his/her own cultural attitudes and approaches.”
Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences. London: Routledge.
The Pennsylvania State University World Campus. (2017). Lesson 2: Introduction to Culture
Christopher,
I read this and sympathize with this, the day after the election I was taking a train with my brother when a man came up to his face and said, “Get back to Iraq!” My brother looked at this white old man in the eye and just very calmly said, “I’m Puerto Rican.”
It just seemed so crazy to me that the man assumed anything about my brother because he looked a certain way.
But ultimately, there are two America’s at play now, there is one driven by progress and there is one driven by fear. The one that won this election is the one that wants to isolate itself because the global interconnection that is coming is scary.
But some racists aside, I understand why votes wanted to stem back the wave of change that will inevitably come. It is scary, and America is not prepared, our educational system is not as good as China’s or Japan’s, we are not prepared to deal with the changes, our workforce does not have the skill set to compete in this changing world. We were the super power that did not build on its success and coasted while other countries thrived.
So I understand the fear, and I understand the voters, and I understand how we get here. But I think it’s our personal choice to prepare for the inevitable future, even as some decide to try to keep it from happening.