Ethnocentrism has been a problem in every culture imaginable, unless it was an island with no contact with anyone. Where it became a big(ger) problem was with the invention/popularization of world travel, and the subsequent massive colonialism that resulted. America is only different in that it built many of its structures on the backs of immigrant labor and so had no choice but to respect them.
Also, pure racism does still exist. Take many of these people who seem to be only suffering from "ethnocentrism" and put them in a room with a bunch of black people, who are, say, reading quietly, chatting a bit, and wearing school uniforms, in a library, and that "well I'm fine with black people as long as they act white" guy will probably flee from the room. (this is an analogy to what happened here; whether or not you believe me or reject it because "real racism doesn't exist so obviously you're mistaken")
It's still racism. What they really mean is "I'm fine with black people as long as I can ignore them and/or their blackness"
(why are the Amish never called fundamentalists anyway? Right, tangent.)
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2009-07-09 10:02 pm (UTC)Also, pure racism does still exist. Take many of these people who seem to be only suffering from "ethnocentrism" and put them in a room with a bunch of black people, who are, say, reading quietly, chatting a bit, and wearing school uniforms, in a library, and that "well I'm fine with black people as long as they act white" guy will probably flee from the room. (this is an analogy to what happened here; whether or not you believe me or reject it because "real racism doesn't exist so obviously you're mistaken")
It's still racism. What they really mean is "I'm fine with black people as long as I can ignore them and/or their blackness"
(why are the Amish never called fundamentalists anyway? Right, tangent.)
They are, as much as extremist Muslims are.