Understanding Ethnocentrism, Culture, and Identity
The Importance of Studying History
History study is really important because if you understand it, you can know how you are where you are today. In other words, we need to comprehend the past in order to understand the present. When we study history, we’re learning about human failure, cruelty, and barbarity. For instance, we definitely know how tragic the result of war is from the cases of World War I, World War II, and the Civil War in our history. From these events in the past, we can say that war can never be justified, whatever the causes are. At the same time, we learn about human accomplishments, about facts that make us feel proud. We need to have moral understanding as we’re a society. And why do I say this? Because if we understand individuals and their situations from the past, we’ll be able to understand our morals of the present. Our lives are so much the reflection of theirs. By carefully looking at their ways of thinking or their attitudes, we’ll have a better understanding of ourselves. We have to take into account that we’re living in a part of history at the moment, and this present will become the past as time passes. For example, what happened in our lives yesterday becomes a part of history. That’s the reason why if we think that studying history isn’t necessary, we’re immediately admitting that we’re living meaningless lives. In conclusion, we should be interested in learning history since it teaches us valuable lessons so that we won’t do the same things wrong ever again.
Societies Considered Superior
Yes, there are societies that are considered inherently superior. To understand this, it’s really important to know the term ‘ethnocentrism,’ which is used to describe the act of judging another culture and believing that the values of one’s own culture are superior (especially with regards to language, behavior, customs, and religion). Also, imperialism is related to ethnocentrism. Imperialism was heavily practiced by Europeans a long time ago. For instance, the British overtook lands in the USA, Africa, Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Scotland, and more. They believed that they were superior because, in their opinion, the societies of Africa and America were primitive and only based on hunting and farming. Ethnocentricity may be a problem and still exists today. For example, the USA has often thought of itself as more powerful and generally better than other nations. Although in the USA there are citizens who originally came from all over the world, the feeling of national pride stands in for a pure ethnicity. Within a large society, there may be many groups, with different subcultures associated with region, ethnic origin, or social class. If a single culture is dominant in a large region, its values may be considered correct and may be promoted. One of the most well-known examples of ethnocentrism belongs to Nazi Germany. Hitler hated Jewish people and had many innocent people slaughtered in concentration camps. They didn’t deserve the torture they received because we all are equal. In fact, nobody is superior to anybody.
Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism is the ability to understand a culture without making judgments using the standards of one’s own culture. By the way, we promote understanding of other cultural practices that aren’t similar to our own culture. Thanks to cultural relativism, we can say that no one culture is superior to another culture when compared to systems of morality, law, politics, etc. On the other hand, I believe that cultural relativism should be limited. And why? Because for cultural relativism, there’s no absolute standard of good or evil, and every judgment of what is right and wrong is individually decided in each society.
There are two different categories of cultural relativism: absolute and critical. When it’s absolute, everything that happens within a culture mustn’t be questioned by outsiders. The most extreme example of it would be the Nazi party’s point of view justifying the Holocaust. On the other hand, critical cultural relativism creates questions about cultural practices in terms of who accepts them and why, and who they might be harming or helping. Unfortunately, absolute cultural relativism is displayed in many cultures, especially in Africa, that practice female genital cutting. That’s totally impermissible. Outside cultures are unable to stop this practice from happening because it’s protected by its culture. Another example of cultural relativism can be seen with the Chinese culture and their process of feet binding to make them smaller. In China, small feet were seen as beautiful and a symbol of status. This practice was banned, but women continued doing it because for them it is a symbol of beauty. As you can see, the idea of beauty differs from culture to culture.
Chicano – Gary Soto
A Chicano is a Mexican who lives in the USA. Gary Soto, the author of “The Jacket,” was born in 1952 in Fresno, California, to a Mexican-American family. The family struggled to make ends meet when he was growing up. There were times when Soto had to wear cardboard in his shoes and pick grapes to make money. “The Jacket” is actually a memoir, a true story about something that happened to the author when he was in 5th and 6th grade. Although ‘Chicano’ had negative connotations as a term of denigration prior to the Chicano Movement, it was reclaimed by Mexican Americans to express self-determination and solidarity in a shared cultural, ethnic, and communal identity. The Chicano liberation movement occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, and it was a movement of resistance to oppression. In “The Jacket,” we can see that Gary was seen as inferior because of his cheap and ugly jacket; he wasn’t accepted. Despite the size of the huge Chicano population and the contributions Chicanos make to US society, their demands for economic and social equality aren’t listened to. The system doesn’t respond to Chicano needs; it opposes Chicano freedom.
Sexual Identity
First of all, it’s important to know that the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are completely different. Sex is purely biological (as soon as an individual is born, they’re identified as either male or female). Gender is more complex; it includes physical attributes and the interaction between those traits and a person’s sense of self; it’s how an individual presents himself or herself to the world. Sexual identity refers to how individuals think of themselves; it involves the range of acceptance of an individual’s biological sex at birth. On the other hand, sexual orientation focuses on the biological sex of the person who an individual is sexually attracted to. These identities include heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual, among others. In my opinion, there’s nothing abnormal about non-heterosexual lifestyles, although society views these sexual identities as deviant and immoral. Sadly, there have been numerous studies attempting to determine whether or not there is a biological or psychological cause for homosexuality.
And what does this have to do with society? Society defines the different sexual categories and teaches us what characteristics these individuals and groups should have. For instance, the view that heterosexuality is the only acceptable form of sexuality is called heteronormativity. By an early age, most children display behaviors and select activities typical of his or her sex, fitting a mold. If these children don’t identify themselves with their sex, they can try to change their identity with hair style, behavior, clothing choice, or even with hormone therapy or surgery. Culture shapes the ideas of what behaviors are appropriate between men and women. For instance, though there are some variances from culture to culture, most have some type of labor division that signifies what tasks or jobs are appropriate for a man versus those that are appropriate for women. For example, men considered less masculine are seen as being less of a man, while women who seem less feminine are assumed to be trying to take over the man’s role in society.
Racial Hate
Racism in the USA has existed since the colonial era, when white Americans were given legally and socially privileged rights, while these same rights were denied to other races and minorities. For instance, European Americans enjoyed exclusive privileges in matters of education, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, etc. On the other hand, non-Protestant immigrants from Europe, particularly Irish people, Poles, and Italians, often suffered xenophobic exclusion until the late 19th century and early 20th century. In addition, groups like Jews and Arabs have faced continuous discrimination in the USA, and as a result, some people who belong to these groups don’t identify as white. East, South, and Southeast Asians have similarly faced racism in America.
Also, there’s racism against Native Americans. With the Europeans’ arrival on North America’s shores and their systematic plan to subdue and conquer its land came racism against Native Americans. Europeans believed the original inhabitants of America were savages who needed to be civilized through Christianity and European culture. This led to genocide, stolen lands, and attempts to destroy Native American traditions. In addition, many of the Africans brought to America in the 17th century arrived as slaves, kidnapped from their homelands. Families were separated through the process of buying and selling slaves. While not all Africans in America were slaves, a large number were, particularly in the Southern states. For those Africans in America who were free, there were discriminatory laws, and they couldn’t own properties or vote. Some Americans saw the presidential candidacy of Obama, who served as president of the USA from 2009 to 2017 and was the nation’s first Black president, as a sign that the nation had entered a new, post-racial era. But during the 2010s, American society has continued to experience high levels of racism and discrimination. One new phenomenon has been the rise of the ‘alt-right’ movement: a white nationalist coalition that seeks the expulsion of sexual and racial minorities from the USA.
Black People’s Rights and Racism
Racism is the belief that one’s race, skin color, or one’s group, be it of religious, national, or ethnic identity, is superior to others. In the 1930s, Black people didn’t have rights; they couldn’t vote, they couldn’t sit in the same parts of restaurants as white people or on the bus; they weren’t even counted as a whole person. They had separate drinking fountains, bathrooms; they couldn’t even walk into the front door of a building. For instance, Black Americans had to fight for their right to equality. In the 1950s, a Baptist preacher named Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) became the leader of the civil rights movement. He said the famous “I Have a Dream” speech and believed that peaceful protest was the way forward.
An incident shocked America when Rosa Parks (RP), a 43-year-old Black lady, was arrested in Alabama on December 5, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. MLK organized the Montgomery bus boycott in protest against RP’s arrest but also as a protest against the segregation practices used by the bus company. The protest was successful, and on June 4, 1956, the Supreme Court decided that bus segregation violated the USA Constitution. MLK became a world figure. He reminds me of Nelson Mandela (NM), a South African activist who fought against racism too. In South Africa, NM fought for the freedom of Blacks from apartheid, which was a system of racial segregation that existed in that country from 1948 until the 1990s. It was characterized by an authoritarian political culture based on white supremacy, which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation’s minority white population. The apartheid ended after decades of protest. The president of South Africa, de Klerk, and NM agreed to dismantle the apartheid regime. On April 27, 1994, millions of South Africans, both Black and white, were able to vote in the first multiracial election held since apartheid began in 1948. They voted NM into power.