For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, it is all the stuff we think and feel about other cultures. This goes for the media as well. There is a lot of talk about these “ethnocentrism” things such as the recent “bromance” between Kevin Spacey and Angelina Jolie.
The media is one thing. The internet is another. I’ve written about this quite a bit here on MyLifeInCycle, and you can find it in the archives. You should definitely check it out.
Just a quick note, Ive been thinking about the fact that we all have different cultures, so my assumption about this is that Ive been doing this wrong. You can find an entire page about this at the end of this post.
I think the issue is that we are so accustomed to the idea of “being American.” For instance, we think we know what “American” means, and we expect it to mean the same thing in every culture.
The point of all this is that we can’t take all cultures seriously. We should take the cultures we have time to learn about seriously. So, you don’t have to be a Jew to understand Jewish culture. You can be a Latina, a Mexican, a Native American, or a Chinese, and you will understand all cultures. You can be a white person who understands other cultures, which is why so many people are shocked when I say I’m Jewish.
While I appreciate the general sentiment, the ethnocentrism that I see is pretty rampant. Every culture that I do business with, I try to get to know the people that make up that culture. I try to learn as much as possible about the culture in order to be better able to represent the people I work with. In a way, this can be seen as ethnocentrism in business. We are ethnocentric in business because we want to represent the people we work with.
I think this is one of the aspects that I see ethnocentrism as having. I think it is a natural extension of the fact that we are human. We love, protect, and understand people, and since we are the ones who hold the responsibility of representing that love, we love and protect the people that we are selling to. In a business setting, this is what makes people ethnocentric.
For example, if I am an entrepreneur and I want to sell something to a client, I would want to represent all of my customers. Otherwise, who am I representing? My client I might represent, but I might also represent my personal values and beliefs. Then, I might represent myself, but I might also represent my clients. In the end, it may not be my own interests that I represent, but rather my own values and beliefs. This is what makes you ethnocentric.
Let me say that again, I am not saying that you shouldn’t be ethnocentric, but I am saying that you should avoid the ethnocentric behavior. This is because it could be one of the main reasons why people are ethnocentric.
