Example Of Ethnocentrism Essay

According to Rudyard Kipling, “East is East, and West is West, and never the two shall meet” (Kipling). Kipling mentions that come what may, cultural conflict between the two halves of the world is inevitable. One factor that creates a gulf between the western and eastern world is that each defines its identity with respect to the other. For instance, when an American sees an Indian, they define themselves to be better than Indians. The East and West did not blend when globalization erased national boundaries. The first reaction of a western nation is to embrace and promote diversity. In contrast, the East’s reaction is the fear of being conquered. As the two parts of the world mingle, there arises a love-hate relationship that leads to conflict. Ethnocentrism makes us defensive as we cannot accept coming down to understanding someone else’s culture. In the entire process, we consider our culture to be the most reasonable, and the best way to live. This is why it may be possible to have a low degree of ethnocentrism, but non-ethnocentrism is not possible (Gudykunst and Nishida). This is not to say that being ethnocentric, or “culture conscious”, is wrong— it is a …show more content…
It is a subtle form of self-centeredness. Since stereotyping is a very complicated phenomenon, its elimination is not easy. It has created situations of baseless assumptions, terrorism, and prejudice. People grow up absorbing the ideas of their culture, and consider other’s culture to be “different”. For instance, an American “identity” develops within an American, and the Islamic beliefs don’t match with that idea. This is why it happens to be nearly impossible to erase ethnocentrism from our lives. Cultural conflict between the East and West is inevitable as we try and look at the world from the eyes of our ethnicity. As ethnocentrism comes out to be inevitable, cultural conflict is inevitable, as