Ethnocentrism Ethnocentrism is seen across the world today. The judgment of a person by their attire or language is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentric people may not even realize what they are doing, or that it can be harmful to themselves and others. Ethnocentrism is a negative outlook because, it can lead to false assumptions, it prevents the education of diverse cultures, and it limits people’s perspectives of the world. First, because ethnocentrism is judging all cultures’ ideas and customs off one specific culture’s ideas and customs it can lead to people having false assumptions. People often will go by word of mouth, such as gossip or rumors, instead of what is factual. Then they will compare it to their own beliefs and create their own opinions and then pass those opinions on. They will not actually try and figure it out and will instead settle for the things told to them. Next, ethnocentrism can prevent the education of diverse cultures. This can happen because many cultures are taught just to believe in their own. People disregard other cultures for being wrong or incorrect when they should be in fact accepting them. When one culture does not educate their people to understand other cultures it creates a boundary between cultures; by doing so they are being ethnocentric.
Last, ethnocentrism limits people’s perspectives of the world. Understanding and judging everything off one culture disconnects people from the rest of the world.
