Post 224: Can you judge another culture by its own standards?

Post 224:  Can you judge another culture by its own standards?

I was watching TV one night and the American broadcaster said, "Confucianism disgusts me because in China they think of the collective good and they don't value individual human life like we do in the United States. Unlike China, in the US we treasure every individual. The Chinese are just not wired that way to value individual life like we do in the States " (This is a paraphrase)


Did this American broadcaster make an ethnocentric statement?
Your Dictionary.com defines ethnocentrism as this, "Ethnocentrism is a major factor in the divisions among members of different ethnicities, races, and religious groups. It's the belief that one's ethnic group is superior to another. Ethnocentric individuals believe they're better than other individuals for reasons based solely on their heritage. Clearly, this practice relates to problems of both racism and prejudice."

The sad thing is ethnocentrism happens any time one culture thinks it is superior to another. In Nazi Germany, Hitler thought the Aryan race was better than the Jews, so he exterminated 6 million Jews.  As a result, ethnocentric views can be dangerous.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the British took over other lands like Africa, Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Scotland, and the Americas. The British thought Africa and the Americas were primitive societies that needed the British to teach them modern British technology and culture. Thus, the British thought their culture was superior to other cultures.

Going back to the American broadcaster, was it appropriate for him to state that Confucianism disgusts him? Or that Confucianism leads the Chinese to think of the common good rather than think about the individual like in American culture? Is he being ethnocentric to think American individualism is better than Chinese collectivism? Does he think the American individualistic culture is better than Confucian culture?

Now if I were teaching an Intercultural Communication class, or a Cultural Diversity class, I would then ask the students, "Why is this statement inappropriate based on the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism?" "

If I were teaching a Critical Thinking class, I would ask students: "In what way is this statement a sweeping generalization fallacy?"

Is it appropriate for anybody to have ethnocentric views? Why or why not?

Is it better instead to practice cultural relativism? Cultural relativism means you judge that culture's standards in that culture's context. For instance, Confucianism works well in Chinese culture while Individualism works well in American culture. No culture is better than the other. They are just different from one another and each culture has its own set of rules that works for it.

Do you think cultural relativism can reduce ethnocentrism?

How would you rephrase that American broadcaster's statement so that it does not sound so ethnocentric? and more cultural relativistic?

Or I can have my students do role play. If a Chinese person were to say, "Christianity disgusts me. In China, we believe in the common good. Believing in the common good is better than believing in the individualistic culture of the United States." How would you feel if an ethnocentric Chinese person said that to you about American culture?

I believe these questions would make for a fascinating discussion about instances of ethnocentrism in American culture or instances of ethnocentrism around the world. (Yes, the Chinese are also guilty of ethnocentrism but that is another blog post!)

Then I would have my students figure out the answer for themselves, because I would want my students to construct their own knowledge.