Examples Of Ethnocentrism In Romeo And Juliet

By looking at the ethnocentrism of the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party in Greece, and comparing it to the situation in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, we can observe commonalities in the cause of ethnocentrism and its manifestation. In the English classic, the two houses, the Capulets and Montagues are locked in a generational conflict. Despite having no true motivation to fight with each other, they still brutally hate one another. Notably, this hatred is concentrated more strongly in the younger members of each house, with the older generational takin on a more lax attitude. This may hint at Shakespeare's ideas of how exposure to reality and truth are in conflict with hatred. In any case, this relationship is seen most clearly in an interaction

Now, by the stock and honor of my kin,
To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.”

Tybalt comments on how Romeo is fleeing and scorning at them, but Romeo is doing no such thing. He portrays him according to an untrue stereotype. Shakespeare shows just how illogical these generational hatreds can be, but he also shows that they serve a point: to maintain an us-them mentality. We know this is true through Tybalt’s separation of his “kin” and Romeo’s “kin.” Both are citizens of the same city, and are indistinguishable in all ways except for name. Despite this, Tybalt is adamant that the “stock and honor” of his group is fundamentally against Romeo’s group. The use of the word honor shows that it is a matter of identity and self-respect to Tybalt; he is honor-bound to hate

The way Tybalt justifies his hatred of them is by claiming to be a victim of their ridicule, only attacking after perceived fleers and scorns. This type of justification for hatred is all too common in our modern world. The Third Reich is infamous for the lengths it went to to “protect Germany from the Jews.” We now know, in reality that this was completely untrue, and only used to justify the killing of innocents. This type of hatred is not limited to the past, but is an unfortunate reality in our modern world. In Greece, the Golden Dawn party has been instigating racial hatred against Refugees moving through the country for years. In “Greece’s Fascists Are Gaining,” Matthaios Tsimitakis shows the rise in the party’s popularity. He writes, “In Kos, which is overwhelmed by an influx of refugees, I witnessed the rise of neo-Nazi influence. Shop owners openly expressed their indignation and xenophobic views. A 50-year old woman at the port complained that immigrants are filthy and that extremist Islamists are hiding among them. ‘Soon enough, the Greeks will become a minority in our own land,’ she told me. A few days later Golden Dawn released a video in which three children called upon voters to support Golden Dawn, keep Greece for the Greeks, and urged them not to become a minority in their own country.” Again, we see the us-them