Xenophobia – intense or
irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries
How
many times have we opened up a science fiction book and xenophobia
was one of the reasons for antagonism between humans and aliens? Or
one set of aliens and another? What about fantasy stories where
there's a war because one kingdom despises the people of another just
because they worship another god or are different from the
antagonistic kingdom? How
much do we see in our own world today?
I have
heard more xenophobic statements in the last ten years than I have in
my entire life. People, not just in this nation but around the world,
have expressed their distrust of, fear of contamination from, and
violent diatribes against people from other countries. It's both sad
and disturbing.
We are
in a world of global communication. Get online and you can reach
people in most areas around the world. There are places too poor to
have internet access, but they can be reached in other ways. The
point of this is we can speak to millions of people. And there are
some who are being silenced by their own governments.
The
fear of outside contact has led to the stifling of open communication
in those countries. They don't have the rights we do. But how free
are we? There are things we've been hearing in the news, reading in
stories online, that make me wonder just how long it will be before
we are silenced.
Xenophobia
is a terrible thing. It leads to misunderstandings, wars, and
suffering. It closes borders.
It stifles communication. It deprives people of outside ideas, which
could expand knowledge and creativity. Open borders help open minds.
Open minds lead to understanding. Understanding leads to peace.
This.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I hate it when people read a long blog I've written and reply with only one word, but it's true. I agree with everything you're saying here, so *This*.
:)
I've done the one word thing a time or two myself. So I don't mind the one word answer this time. :)
DeleteIn many ways, I see xenophobia as one more example of a tribalism that I feel as a race we need to outgrow. To bring it to a subject that I feel passionate about, I've had struggles again recently where my identity as a queer woman (not as lesbian) caused problems for me in a "female/female-focused" forum; my understanding of sexuality was too broad for the people I was trying to interact with.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, on other countries, we get these notions from our media. This leads to questions of who controls the media, what do they want us to know, what are we even able to learn from countries where their communication with "the outside world" are curtailed by their government.
I agree, I don't think we're as free in the US as we'd like to think we are. But then I'm engaged in some heavy reading about the transgender experience, about censorship around sexual education, sexual identity, minority identity, pornography, and a bunch of other identities that the "mainstream" would have be silent.
I think there are many degrees of xenophobia in the world. I agree about the mainstream media. We don't know what the truth is, though I've seen enough horror stories to convince me some of it has to be true.
DeleteHonestly, I think everyone needs to open their minds and look outside their own borders, their own narrow view of the world, and open up to the possibilities that differences are there but they are part of what makes people people.
One thing that pisses me off greatly is that people use the fear of "otherness" as an excuse to refuse to change anything. It really makes me fly off the handle when they take it even further and use different cultures and lifestyles wanting inclusion as a reason for why they, the people in the majority with all the power, are oppressed.
ReplyDeleteXenophobia: so we don't have to make the world a better place.
I agree. It pisses me off too.
DeleteGreat choice for X. It's such a shame this still exists to the extend it does in our world. You'd think people would evolve a little faster.
ReplyDeletePeople have been slow to evolve their thought patterns. Look at the spread of homophobia, not just in our country but in many others. It would be lovely if we could just all respect each other but I honestly think that's not going to happen.
DeleteOpen borders help open minds. Open minds lead to understanding. Understanding leads to peace. << Very true.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the world at peace someday. I don't think it ever will. But it's a nice dream.
DeleteBravo. Well said. It really gets me that so many Americans forget where we came from. Virtually all of us are of immigrant stock, yet an embarrassing number of Americans seem to hate immigrants, want to close the borders, want to send all the "illegals" back where they came from. Government policy itself has been limiting populations of color from the very beginning, and no immigrant population has ever been welcomed with open arms--the Irish, Italian, and Polish immigrants of a hundred years ago faced exactly the kind of xenophobia we still see alive and well today. Emma Lazarus's poem has always been a lie.
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with that poem, but I do know about the poor treatment of all immigrants. It doesn't make any sense to me because America is supposed to be open to that. It's one of the basic premises of our country. It's sad that too many people forget that.
Delete