Examples Of Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism is the belief of one’s personal ethnic group to be far more superior than the others. It can be developed based from one’s cultural background, ethnicity or religious differences. Very often, an Ethnocentric person judges an individuals based on their ethnic group especially their religions, customs, languages and behaviors. According to Berry & Kalin (1995), “Ethnocentrism is viewed as lacking acceptance of cultural diversity and intolerance for outgroups”. A perceptions from an Ethnocentric very often lead to divisions amongst members of the society, foster negative judgments, prejudice and racism.

While many people may not realize that we are in the 21th Century now, the world has becomes far more connected than before,

Adolf Hitler’s ideas of Germanic-Race ideology found supports and acceptance in Germany that he started wars against European countries by seizing their lands, killing all non-Germans in order to expand their living space. He was also against Jewish that he approved a killing squads that were responsible to killed all Jewish and non-German descendants. This can be supported from claims by World History Group (n.d), “From the years 1939 to 1945 part of the Nazi army were responsible for deaths of 11 to 14 million people which included about 2/3s of the European Jewish population or 6 million people. In addition they killed between 200,000 and 1.5 million Romanics, often called gypsies. Most of which were gassed while others starved or died of disease.” This proof to be one of the most gruesome examples of Ethnocentrism to be ever occurred in the history of mankind.

Another example of Ethnocentrism in world history would be during the Japanese Imperialism (Japanese Occupation) in 1932, Japanese believed that they are far more supreme and superior in Asia. It is their mission to be the greatest in the Far East that they started wars against the Chinese and other South East Asia countries,

Most of the time, languages or accents are closely related to a person’s places of origin and cultural background. A Primary or Secondary School’s management may reluctant to hire any teachers who are of Indian or Sri Lankan descents to carry out English classes due to their accents and ethnicity. Mainly because they believe Indians often speak with a heavily accented English. This is generally pure discrimination and prejudice towards a certain group of people. We may have Indians or Sri Lankans who are born and raised in United Kingdom or New Zealand who speaks perfectly good English. But because of their Ethnocentric attitudes towards an individual’s ethnicity and cultural background, it interferes the management’s ability in decision-making and ultimately costs the job-seekers to lose his or her job not because they lacked of qualifications but due to the fact of their ethnicity