Ethnocentrism Hinders Effective Cross-Cultural Dialogue and Common Understanding Essay

As human beings, we are inhitherntly biased in our appreciation of issues and others- by others I mean those who do not fail in the same socio-cultural group we assign to. Our inborn predilection to take a subjective view of reality leads to the common-and equally incorrect- assumption that we are right in our ways, while others are wrong in theirs. This tendency of biased notions of cultural transcendence in relation to other cultures is what political scientist William G. Sumner (1906) summed up with the coinage of the term ethnocentrism. By definition, ethnocentrism is the tendency by individuals to believe, unconsciously and through false assumptions, that their culture is better than that of others. Notably, there is a running thread of collective concurrence among whites that we westerners, with our western civilization and attendant lifestyles, are superior to the backward races of Africa, which we conveniently label a jungle of savagery. The negative effects of ethnoce ntrism are manifest in international relations, where effective intercultural communication is hampered by cultural differences and culture transitional challenges (Moran, Harris and Moran, 2007, 265).N acetheless, to eliminate collective generalizations by rubricing that it is we westerners rather than I, me and myself, who suffers this cultural prejudice- a claim by which I unwittingly admit my ethnocentric conditioning to include fellow tribesmen in my cut worldview corner- I hereby set out to examine how I have severally paid tribunal to this populist bandwagon of cultural subjectivity in judgment. Finally, I allow for outline the course of remedy I have chartered to liberate myself from the blinding ignorance of ethnocentrism.Was it me, really, now that Im thinking from a comparatively wider perspective? Late last year, I accompanied a close friend of mine from Saudi-Arabian Arabia (whom I will not disclose for the pang of guilt that gnaws at my conscience) to pick some fo rms from our embassy. Well, it seems that since folk 11, a kind of phobia for our Muslim brothers has eaten into our national psych. At a personal level, I forever and a day change lanes every time I meet one donning a flowing white line up and. err, an unusually long beard.Anyway, the security man at the embassy just ran the metal detector over my physical structure and patted me on the back. But when it was my friends turn, the security guy, perhaps seeing Osamas ghosts, took a racy breath and started what was the approximately rigorous personal search I had ever witnessed. He yanked the garb from the prat and ran the detector inch by inch, grinned with relief upon finding nothing (read bombs) and then allowed him to pass through. However, the issue here is not the security mans exaggerated fears, but the fact that I took it as normal, without bothering to suspicion why it wasnt.The culture I grew up in had taught me to regard some religions as being like with terrorism, and to deteriorate others as pagan idolatry and pure superstition. In my evaluation of world religions, Im often tempted to associate Islam with terrorism, a belief that is largely fed by media stereotyping in relation to incidences of self-annihilation bombings. As for most traditional African religions, customs and rituals, I always found evidence to dismiss them as the demonic chants of a pagan charlatan.Their polygamy I considered the ways of an uncivilized society that still harbors the nutty cavemans genes. On this score, my blindness was informed by the western glorification of the nuclear family unit, which greatly contrasts with other cultures recognition of the unifying aspect of extended families and kinship systems (Moran, Harris and Moran, 2007, 11). In regard to religious convictions, the and true Supreme Being I believed existed is the Christian God I worship, whom I assumed held in contempt the ungodly ways of unchristian religions.For such a long time, I erroneo usly believed that with the censure of Christians, all other trusters are doomed for hell. This ethnic and cultural belief that the religion in which one belongs is centrally important (Andersen, 2006) is one of the sub-divisions that promote ethnocentrism. Personally, it was my honest conviction until I realized that every believer thinks likewise of other religions. Remarkable is my said friends vehement assertion that Jesse the son of bloody shame (Christ) was an imposter whose legend deceived people that he was the son of God.Instead, he argues that Mohamed is the true messenger of Allah, the creator of everything. Nonetheless, it will be a self-contradiction for me to consider my system of beliefs as not being the right one and the most appropriate. It is an inconsistence and admission of its falseness, which I consider the height of ideological hypocrisy. I recognize the reality that I belong to a particular culture and the fact that to fit in my society I must aline to its cultural beliefs and value systems.However, to reconcile my cultural beliefs with other cultural worldviews, I find insight in the principle of cultural relativism by Franz Boas, who argued that civilization is not something absolute, but is relative, and our ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes (Degler, 1992 p 67). Accordingly, peoples behaviors, customs and beliefs should be understood in the context of their cultures. When we use the lens of our cultures to understand other cultures, there is always the risk of prejudice and biasness.The job of ethnocentrism leads to failure of constructive communication and misunderstandings, which in turn causes cultural differences and conflicts (Moran, Harris and Moran, 2007, p 4). Similarly, the theory of functionalism by Bronislaw Malinowski posits that cultures are systems of structures by which different societies function. Each society, therefore, has unique needs which can only be served by its confess culture. As such, we can only understand the behavior of other cultures when we take that cultures viewpoint, to avoid the misconceptions created by our experiences within our own culture.References Andersen, M. L. (2006). Sociology understanding a diverse society. New York Thomson/Wadsworth. Degler, C. N. (1992). In Search of human beings Nature The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought. US Oxford University Press. Moran, T. R. , Harris, P. R. , Moran, S. V. (2007). Managing cultural differences global leading strategies for the 21st century, 7th Edition. New York Butterworth-Heinemann Sumner, W. G. (1906). Folkways. In McCann, C. R. (2004). Individualism and the social order the social element in liberal thought. New York Routledge.