Posted by:
anybody
(
)
Date: September 17, 2020 11:27PM
Ethnocentrism and racism are very different.
You mentioned Jews and Caucasians.
Let's start with the latter.
Literally, "caucasians" are people from the Caucasus — the mountain range of southeastern Europe. But this term wasn't even used to mean "white European" before the eighteenth century. All this racial terminology that we use today was invented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racismSuppose you went back in time with Marco Polo on his trip to China. Back then, people from Europe would most likely describe themselves as "Christians," Africans as "Mohammedans" or "Moors," etc. "White" as an ethnic term was still hundreds of years in the future. Marco Polo himself doesn't even use the word "Hindu" (from the Greek word "'Indoi," after the Indus River) but instead refers to them in religious terms as "idolaters." The Chinese thought these ragamuffins from the other side of the world as uncivilised, uncultured barbarians. The ancient Persians thought the Greeks to be the same while the Greeks thought the Persians to be effete lovers of luxury. That's ethnocentrism.
The "untouchables" (no longer referred to by that name, Dalit is now the proper term) come close to the American version of systemic black racism, but they come in all colors and from many places and are not a distinct ethnic group per se. But that's religious, not racial.
Now to the Jews. The Romans could care less about what gods you worshiped as long as you pledged loyalty to the Emperor. The Christians wouldn't do this and were persecuted. But the Jews never became Christians, were blamed for executing Jesus when the Romans were actually responsible, and were then regarded as evil in their midst. Is Judaism a religion or a "race?" Many modern Jews say a religion and this is the common view in America and Britain. In continental Europe, Jewishness is regarded as an ethnicity akin to being black or Hispanic (which itself is a constructed term) in the USA. I'm reminded of a scene from "Conspiracy" (2001) about the infamous Wannsee Conference where Heydrich and the other top Nazis are trying to reach a definitive definition on who is a Jew and what traits qualify someone as Jewish and they followed the same infamous "one drop" rule as many southern states did in America. But there are Jews from many different places and ethnic groups. There's even endo-ethnic racism amongst Jews, too.
All this stuff is arbitrary and invented. None of it is natural. Ethnocentrism is as old as the hills, but it's not the same as saying "you have the genetic characteristics of group X, therefore you can only be a slave."
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2020 11:29PM by anybody.