Barriers to understanding and acceptance

The only way to reduce racist behavior and racial profiling is to identify it, then identify the reasons why it occurs and provide explanations and solutions. Racist behavior comes from differences between cultures and ethnicities as well as the lack of understanding and open-mindedness of people involved in cross-cultural interaction. Once we identify the barriers of understanding and acceptance between cultures, it is easier to go around them in hopes of getting to better intercultural communication and tolerance.

Assuming similarity instead of difference

One of the great barriers we face is assuming similarity instead of difference. This concept is simple: one tends to behave as they would in their own home culture when they interact with someone from a different culture, assuming it is the same or it is very similar to their own. One’s behavior, which is coherent with the values and customs of their culture, is the only behavior they would consider possible. Obviously, this can lead to important misunderstandings and frustration between people of different cultures interacting with each other. I have once met a guy from Berlin, Germany, who was travelling to Montreal (where I’m from). Hoping to enjoy a nice hot summer day, he went downtown, bought a big can of beer and started walking while taking sips of his cold beer. Eventually, two police officers caught him and asked him what he was doing. Convinced that he was doing nothing wrong, as it is legal to drink alcohol in public areas in Berlin, he replied that he was just walking and enjoying the nice weather. The officers took his answer as complete arrogance and got mad at him… At one point both parties realized that this was a misunderstanding coming from cultural differences and things worked out fine, but the point is that my German friend could’ve avoided this situation by not assuming similarity instead of difference when coming to another country. Wherever you go, whomever you meet, you should never assume that they would have the same cultural standards and behavior as yours. You should have no expectations and be prepared for similarities as much as differences.

Ethnocentrism

Another important barrier is ethnocentrism.  Ethnocentrism – or cultural relativism, as it is also called – is negatively judging another culture based on the standards of one’s own culture. What it means is that one will automatically see their own culture as superior to others. Here is a definition and historical examples of ethnocentrism. Let’s take the example of the German drinking beer on the street in a country where it is prohibited and see it from an ethnocentrism point of view. That guy could easily get frustrated because he is used to having the right to drink alcohol in public in is country, and judge this new country’s culture based on his own cultural standards. From his point of view, drinking on the street is totally acceptable and logical. Therefore, he could have a negative judgement on Canadian (and North American) culture and think of his own as better. Or, he could just think of it as different, in a neither positive nor negative way. For example, when Americans talk about the English driving in the “wrong” lane, why wouldn’t they just refer to it as the “left lane” or the “opposite lane as Americans”? 

Not being ethnocentric can be something really hard to do, considering the fact that our culture is the only one we are used to apply in our everyday life, and it can be challenging to face different cultural standards without comparing them to our own. At least being able to recognize and identify the barriers to cultural understanding and acceptance is a very good start towards eliminating those barriers with the right behavior. 

For more details on those two barriers and even more, such as anxiety, stereotypes and prejudice and language problems, I suggest you visit this very interesting and complete blog post.