Ethnocentrism And Prejudice

I never thought of racism and prejudice as a reaction to strangers coming into contact with each other but that makes sense. People often say, “I’m not racist, I have black friends.” That tells me that they don’t realize that racism is not necessarily about how you treat the people you call friend but more about the people you don’t know at all.
Psychologically, there are varying levels of prejudice. On a cognitive level, a person has beliefs and perceptions that a group is threatening or non-threatening (Parillo, 2014). Ethnocentrism is defined as a person’s rejection of all outgroups because they are focused on their own in-group only; in contrast to prejudice which is a rejection of certain people because of their membership in a particular outgroup. On an emotional level, a person experiences intense feelings, positive or negative, that are aroused because of their beliefs about a group. On the action-orientation level, a person can have very strong feelings which lead them to engage in discriminatory behavior for or against a group. A recent exhibit of such action might be the revelation that Rachel Dolezal, the head of the Spokane …show more content…
Ethnic groups will further respond to continued discrimination by either avoiding mainstream society, exhibiting deviant behaviors which are more due to the lack of economic opportunity, being openly defiant or acceptance which is becoming less common in the U.S. today. The dominant group may demonstrate hostility or indifference to minorities through unfair laws, physical separation known as spatial segregation, social segregation, or expulsion in response to social problems. The worst overreaction to minorities is known as xenophobia which is characterized as an almost hysterical response. This reaction can lead to the annihilation of other groups and a persistent culture of openly displayed