Americentrism
I realise that after my last piece, the topic of this one might seem a little ironic. After all, it does feel a little conflicting to say that while we should care about American politics and the impact of Trump in America, we should also be cautious of Americentrism. But here’s my case for how these two things aren’t mutually exclusive, and why they’re both important.
Firstly, what is Americentrism? Americentrism, as defined by the World Heritage Encyclopedia, is the idea or perceived bias to judge other nations by American standards or to center around the United States in news. It refers to the ethnocentric practice of viewing the world from an explicitly U.S. perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of U.S. culture.
Americentrism can have a negative impact in how we view the world and real-world issues, because within the same issue, many different countries and cultures can have different experiences and impacts. Take gender equality, for example, an issue that many societies are struggling with. One of the hurdles that America must overcome for it to be one step closer to gender equality is increasing the number of women in leadership and governmental positions, but in other countries like India, that may not be as much of a problem. A female politician in India said that in America, when a female is up for a leadership position in government, her ability to do the job is called into question, but this is not the case in India. India, of course, still faces the problem of misogyny, where rape is a problem, as with other issues like child and arranged marriages. If one sees the issue of gender equality from just an American perspective, they might say that India is better off than the States in the area of women’s rights, because they have female representation in government and leadership positions, but that would be looking at a mere facet of women’s rights. Just because a country does not have a problem that the U.S. possesses does not mean that overall, they are more well off than them, especially since many issues are very multifaceted.
This phenomenon of the same issue being manifested in different ways across different societies happens even within countries and societies that have historically influenced each other and are in geographical proximity to each other, like China and Japan. China’s unmarried women in their late 20s and 30s face the stigma of being a 剩女 (sheng nu), or leftover woman, while Japan’s working mothers are called the derogatory term oniyome, a portmanteau of the words oni and oyome, which mean “devil” and “wife” respectively. To be a working mother in China is fine, and to be a single woman in her 30s in Japan is also socially acceptable, but not vice versa. Different people in different cultures across different countries experience the same issues differently, and to experience everything from an American perspective would be having an extremely narrow view of the issue of feminism that is not sensitive to cultural and societal differences.
One should then be cautious of Americanism, then, but how does one do so and be aware of current events in the United States? Well, to begin with, they aren’t mutually exclusive. While an awareness of what is happening in the States is good, the danger of Americentrism looms when there is a lack of moderation in terms of the content one consumes. If all one reads and watches is news about America, for example, one can miss out on other equally valid and insightful, viewpoints and perspectives. While the news coming out of America is important, it does not mean that we should neglect what is happening to the rest of the world.
With that being said, I understand how different it is to change our media consumption habits, being, admittedly, someone who mainly reads American news. In my defence, as someone who gets their news mainly from sources in English, American news sources like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and so on dominate news in English. While other regional or local newspapers may have English editions, I worry about their objectivity, given that many other countries in the world face the problem of press freedom. This isn’t to say that American newspapers are completely free from bias; every source has an element of bias with it, but at least with American news sources, I can be assured that they would follow at least to a degree the States’ clear and strong stance on government interference and censorship with the free press (although their objectiveness when it comes to the corporate bigwigs that own them is cause for concern). There are other sources, that I read, of course, like The Guardian, a British newspaper, and Le Monde diplomatique, but I have to concede that my news sources are mainly American.
But we should make an effort to address this problem if we know that it exists, even if doing so may be difficult. If it’s hard to get varied sources of daily news, try one-off documentaries featuring different cultures and societies. I, personally, like Al Jazeera’s documentary series like 101 East, or the VICE network’s multiple channels, from, well, VICE, to Broadly, which focuses more on women’s issues, because they are are so readily available on YouTube. You just have to watch one video that piques your interest and YouTube suggestions can take the reins from there for suggestions on what to watch next.
You can also try to keep an open mind about issues. If your sources and the range of them aren’t very varied, acknowledge that when hearing others talk about issues from their perspectives, and be accepting of them. Understand that there is more to the issue than what you know, and if someone offers a differing opinion to yours, try to listen and see it from their perspective instead of shutting it down immediately because it doesn’t match up to your previous understanding of the topic
Acknowledging that your point of view may be flawed is the first step, but we have to do more than that and try to do better.