Ethnocentrism- Wednesday, January 18 2012

On Sunday, I went to my aunt's parents' house for dinner. My aunt, (who is my uncle's wife), had family from her side coming, namely her older brother with his wife and kids. The older brother has a successful business that requires him to travel to Hawaii and other exotic places every once in a while. His wife asked me what I was planning to do this summer since I was going to be done with school. I responded that I would be going to India on a BYU field study, to do some research. I always love seeing people's reactions when I tell them about India...mostly because no one ever knows anything about India except for what they have seen in Slumdog millionaire and Bollywood movies. The wife had a positive reaction, the usual "Oh traveling! how exciting! take advantage of those opportunities while you are young and single". Her husband however, didn't have the same reaction. "India?? why did you choose India? of all the places you could go, you chose an extremely poor country?" I smiled and said "well, I didn't necessarily choose it...I received an email from one of my professors about students going to India or Fiji,and India just stood out to me" I don't need to expound on his reaction when I mentioned that Fiji was an option. He then said "well, I don't know much about India, but I will tell you one thing I do know. All of my friends that have gone there would NEVER go back, they hate it". At this point I felt attacked and probably took what he was saying a little too personally. I tried to keep my cool but it seemed as though I was the only one defending my reasons on why I would ever go to India. The wife then said "well, of course they would hate it there! they're a third world country! I bet it would be hard to visit there" and her husband said "they're not even considered third world, I'm pretty sure they are fourth world with how poor they are!" The ignorance was killing me. Did they even realize that some of the smartest people came from India? that they are the world's largest democracy? that even though they have many social problems, their economy is blossoming slowly? I responded "well I bet your friends that hate India are rich businessmen who go to New Delhi on business. They aren't going for people or for development. They are going for money, right?" He surprisingly looked at me and said "yeah they are businessmen who go to the capital...how did you know?" I quickly responded "well, because ironically, the people that I have talked to, who have gone for development and for the people, can't wait to go back once they leave". After an awkward pause, the well intentioned wife said "so, will you be acknowledged a student doing professional research or just someone else visiting?" the husband interrupted her and said "well honey, she's a girl. Women are not treated the same there...they probably will not acknowledge her like she is acknowledged here". I didn't respond, which was probably a good thing. I just looked at them both and said "honestly, I don't know that much about India, and I have never been there so I can't say. But all I know, is that I am going there to live with the people and to see how they are on a personal level. I want to see life how they see it and learn to love them as God loves them". I realize that my response may have been a little simplistic and maybe naive. However, I could not believe that there would be so many negative things to say about a place that no one had even been to before...just because they saw the world through their own westernized, wealthy, american view. I am guilty of ethnocentrism, but I hope that by the time I am home from India, I will be more open minded and learn to see places and their people, as what they are and not how they look from "here".