"Ethnocentricity" is a word definitely more people should use! I will try and make a point of it. I bet it would defuse a lot of defensiveness. People don't want to be labeled as "racist" even if they really, really are. People who don't quite get what "xenophobic" means declare that they're not afraid of anybody as they stockpile ammo and root for little children being put in cages. But "ethnocentric" I think more people would be able to wrap their brains around without immediately going on the defensive.
Thank you for giving me a new tool in the toolbox!
There's a weird thing in the States where certain denominations of Protestant will say that Catholics are not "real" Christians (which I always find hilarious, since Catholics are rather the original Christians, but I digress). That is usually cited as the reason why Irish and Italian folks had prejudice levied against them back in the day, because the Protestant majority didn't trust "papists." That was still in play when JFK became president. Buuuuuuut ...French people were also generally Catholic? There isn't any weird cultural suspicion about French people. Generally the American stereotype of French people is "sophisticated." I know nowadays in France it's a lot more agnostic/atheist and less Catholic, but still back in the day if the rule was always that it was Catholics who were looked down upon, that rule didn't apply uniformly. So was it really the Catholicism that the WASPs looked down on? I feel like that's not the whole story. Maybe there was just an exception because France was the US' best friend for ages because they helped us win the revolutionary war. Prejudices are weird and not generally logical.
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I think you'd probably need to delve more into British history for the ins and outs of the French, Catholics and protestants. The French are generally classed as sophisticated, because in the revolution the aristocracy were given asylum in England. Because they were wealthy many English saw them as the ones to be like, to show how posh you were. I guess they were like the celebrities of the day. So when one was sophisticated one said French words and ate French cuisine, daahrling. I guess that spread to a generalised perception that all French are sophisticated and it migrated to the US.
Britain is mostly agnostic/atheist these days too. It still surprises me how many Australians are Christian. The Catholic vs protestant started with Henry VIII. The Irish Catholics were persecuted when England governed them. I don't know what it's like in Ireland today, but mainland UK doesn't really seem to judge the two religions. Probably because most of them no longer believe in them. If you enjoy history, the Tudors, from Henry VIII onwards are an interesting study. It gives an insight into the creation and rise of Protestantism. Henry kicked it off with his divorce, his son did the most to build on Anglicanism as a religion under the English monarch, his oldest daughter tried to convert the country back to Catholicism in a rather bloody reign and Elizabeth was slightly less bloody in bringing it back to the Church of England. You didn't need to worry about population control back then! 👍😓
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Yeah, I'm familiar with that history, especially the Tudors. I just didn't think that the American stereotype came from the English stereotype; but you might be right on that!
I like Eddie Izzard's description of the church of England today, that it's more about socializing and nobody really cares what you believe, so if they were going to have an inquisition nowadays it would be, "Tea and cake or DEATH!"
Haha! That sounds about right. The church welcomes all with open arms, tea and biscuits, otherwise they'd be empty! I guess they've learnt to reinvent themselves.
Perhaps stereotypes travel well. I'm sure there are plenty from the other cultures that colonised too.
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