ETHNOCENTRIC MONOCULTURALISM

ETHNOCENTRIC
MONOCULTURALISM
Ethnocentric (valuing of one’s ethnic/cultural group
over others) monoculturalism (belief in one “right”
culture) is an unconscious or conscious overvaluation
of one’s own cultural beliefs and practices, and simul-
taneous invalidation of other cultural worldviews. In
application, ethnocentric monoculturalism posits the
individual’s culture as normal and valid. Other cul-
tures are viewed as abnormal, inferior, or patholog-
ical, with corresponding differential treatment.
Psychology and counseling have a history of being
both monocultural and ethnocentric, resulting in lim-
ited validity for many psychological theories and
practices within the United States. Recognition of eth-
nocentric monoculturalism is meaningful to psychol-
ogy and counseling, as multiculturalism not only is
required for clinical competency by the ethical princi-
ples of psychologists and code of conduct guidelines
of the American Psychological Association, but is also
important to the interpersonal and personal develop-
ment of consumers of psychology.
Ethnocentric monoculturalism is based on the con-
cept of group power. When one group gains social
power, it gains the capacity to define sociocultural
norms. Group power manifests differently in different
countries, with a particular ethnic/cultural group
perhaps dominant in one country but oppressed in
another. Ethnocentric monoculturalism, therefore,
is not limited to any one country or ethnic/cultural
group. Psychology generally recognizes that
European American males hold the dominant group
power in the United States and thus hold the ability to
create social norms. Although some argue that social
revolutions in the 1960s and 1970s have fostered
change, the distribution of social power can be seen
in the demographics of people holding powerful
positions. In the United States, European American
men currently hold an estimated 92% of Forbes 400
chief economic officer positions and 80% of tenured
academic positions in higher education. European
American men hold 80% of the seats in the U.S.
House of Representatives and 84% in the United
States Senate, and 100% of the U.S. presidents have
been men, although European American men consti-
tute only 33% of the general population. The statisti-
cal representation of European American males in
these positions counters a random or fair distribution;
uncontrolled distribution by gender alone would nor-
mally result in a 50% split between males and
females. The concept of dominant group power offers
clarification for this statistical discrepancy.
Ethnocentric monoculturalism explains the fre-
quently espoused perspective of colorblindness in the
United States, or the ideal of treating all cultural
groups the same—a monoculture. In reality, people in
the United States are treated differently, based on oth-
ers’ perception of their cultural validity or normalcy (a
centric perspective). For example, the homeless are
treated differently than those who live in a home, as
living in a home is considered normal in the dominant
U.S. culture. The ability of any dominant group to
define social, economic, and political reality makes it
difficult for that group to see how the centric reality is
a constructed, versus natural, phenomenon. For exam-
ple, race is important only in cultures valuing skin
pigmentation differences and is meaningless in other
cultures. Ethnocentric monoculturalism has been pro-
posed to explain not only overt but covert or modern
forms of group and individual discriminatory beliefs
and practices.
In the United States, the European American eth-
nic/ cultural group holds the majority of social power
and therefore determines the dominant cultural val-
ues. European American culture is considered the
norm, and other cultures are considered deviant from
the norm. When faced with the abnormal, many
people react with distaste and want to remove the
abnormal. Historically, this reaction can be seen in
the active eradication of cultural differences within
the United States, resulting in the frequent perception
of a homogeneous American culture, or monocultur-
alism. Ethnocentric monoculturalism proposes cul-
tural homogeneity to be a logical fallacy, as all
cultural worldviews are valid for the individuals
holding them.
—Jennifer F. Taylor
Ethnocentric Monoculturalism———203See also Ethnocentrism; Institutional Racism; Multicultural
Counseling Competencies; White Privilege
FURTHER READING
Johnson, A. G. (2001).  Privilege, power, and difference.
Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
Sue, D. W. (2004). Caucasianness and ethnocentric monocul-
turalism: Making the “invisible” visible.  American
Psychologist, 59, 761–769.
Takaki, R. (1993). A different mirror: A history of multicultural
America. Boston: Little, Brown.