Ethnocentricity: How Does Society Create Tension Between Different Societies?

Have you ever been racially profiled or felt abused by racial comments or slurs? Racism creates tension between different cultures within the same society. The reason we have this tension is because of the ethnocentricity between different ethnic groups. Ethnocentricity is belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group. So how does the presence of multiple cultures within a society create tension? How does society integrate different groups of immigrants, and how do immigrants transform societies? When different cultures intermingle, it creates tension, and we as a society need to teach our coming generations to have respect for other cultures and educate them about different cultures so they don’t offend others. Educating younger generations will help decrease the ethnocentricity within the same society.
Genocides are a perfect example of ethnocentricity because genocide is the extermination of a race or group of people. A good example is the
Cambodia is the home to the Khmer people and a lot of ethnic minorities. In 1953 Cambodia gained its independence from France and became very unstable. And in 1960 the US had its war in Vietnam and it spilled over into Cambodia. President Richard Nixon launched a 4-year carpet-bombing that spread across the country, these bombings destabilized Cambodia. When the war ends and US forces withdrew. An underground organization, the Khmer regime, saw an opportunity for “a rebirth of civilization” and seized it. The regime started killing all ethnic minorities and some Cambodian citizens. Ethnic minorities weren’t the only targets. The regime targeted non-farmers because they believed that the farmers and only the farmers had the right to be in their utopian, communist society. This is a good example because the regime hated all of the ethnic minorities and non- farmers, and when the country was most vulnerable they attacked.