Ethnocentrism in The Tempest

Ethnocentrism in The Tempest

It is no secret that society is constantly changing. Whether for the good or bad, we inevitably continue to undergo these alterations.  As time goes by, the rate of these changes is increasing exponentially, and we can see how significantly different our sociopolitical climate has become in comparison to previous centuries.  Just looking at literature alone, we can get a vivid idea of how drastically our society contrasts from that of the duration of early British literature. We can take a look at Shakespeare’s use of language within his plays and can conclude that his use of language is extremely outdated and nobody, perhaps a few exceptions, speak in the same manner that Shakespeare wrote in anymore. Although it seems unlikely that anything from that period is present today, the effects that come from the ideas expressed from those time have persisted even into modern-day society. The notion that ideas from the distant past have continued to persist despite the marginal difference in time is especially true when examining Shakespeare’s play The Tempest with its reoccurring display of ethnocentrism and the oppression that develops as a result of it. The Tempest has been one of Shakespeare’s most memorable works of literature as it was one of his last and the treatment of Caliban within the play has been a topic of discussion for quite some time which is why I will be focusing my research on The Tempest, specifically with how discrimination towards the unfamiliar exhibited in the play continues to be illustrated in today’s sociopolitical climate as seen when looking at the current conflicting problems such as that of forced removal of indigenous people and the racial oppression in America.

Ethnocentrism is a very complex concept. Although it might seem quite rudimentary at the surface, many misconceptions come into play when discussing and defining ethnocentrism which has caused some confusion with coming to terms of the concrete definition. According to Boris Bizumic and John Duckitt, ethnocentrism is the “strong sense of ethnic group self-centeredness, which involves intergroup expressions of ethnic group preference, superiority, purity, and manipulativeness, and intragroup expressions of ethnic group cohesion and devotion” (Bizumic and Duckitt 887). It is essential that we define this concept in order to stray from the misconceptions to allow us to further look at the oppressive attitudes that arise from being ethnocentric as it is a “universal syndrome of discriminatory attitudes and behaviors” (Axelrod and Hammond 926).  With this definition, we can legitimately assess that ethnocentrism correlates with discrimination. Axelrod and Hammond also further expand on their definition that “the attitudes include seeing one’s own group (the in-group) as virtuous and superior, one’s own standards of value as universal, and out-groups as contemptible and inferior” (926). Both analytic texts agree that it is also important to realize that ethnocentrism is a psychological process and has existed as far back as “the time of early humans” (Bizumic and Duckitt 898). The idea that ethnocentrism dating back to much further back in history is true as we see many displays of it in Shakespeare’s The Tempest which he wrote in the early 17^th century. The Tempest takes place on an island of which Prospero and his daughter Miranda live on after being exiled from Milan. The island’s only native inhabitant, Caliban, is described as having a friendly relationship with Prospero initially when he first came on the island but became exploited and enslaved after Caliban attempted to rape Miranda. We are made aware by Prospero that he is the son of the devil and Sycorax when he yells at Caliban, “Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself. Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!” (Shakespeare, lines 323-325). Caliban is clearly an outsider and is completely different in comparison to all the other characters within the play. We later learn that Miranda teaches Caliban the language of English in his response to Miranda, “You taught me language, and my profit on’t. Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you. For learning me your language!” (Shakespeare, lines 367-370). This could be their attempt at trying to assimilate Caliban in order to transform him into what is considered more civilized. This is significant to be aware of as it is an instance of trying to make Caliban more like them which ties into the idea of assimilation. It is in question, however, on whether or not Caliban truly attempted to rape Miranda as Susan Andrade states, “Miranda, who, as the father’s daughter, obeys the patriarchal injunction not to have sexual intercourse with the native Caliban. She retains her virginity and marries instead one of her own race chosen by her father” (Andrade 192). Granted, this is mentioned as it could just be an excuse by Prospero to force discriminatory acts upon the outsider Caliban. The connection could be made that Prospero represents English colonizers and Caliban is parallel to the Irish. Prospero is often seen through the story mentioning how good he is to Caliban and that he is doing him a favor by having him enslaved which is similar to the relationship among the British and Irish (Fuchs 48). Upon these discoveries, we become aware of the strong sense of ethnocentrism in British literature and further understand the reasoning behind the oppression of certain people.

Similarly, to way in which Caliban had his island was taken away from him, Oroonoko was kidnapped, which stripped him of his royal state of living , and sent away into slavery. We have seen this in American history on multiple occasions through the forced removal of indigenous people from federal land. There are countless instances of this, but a significant one is that of the Native Americans who were forced from their homes to move westwards in efforts to diminish Indian presence in the south. This instance of forced removal became known as the Trail of Tears and occurred in the early nineteenth century. Following the Civil War, the Native Americans did not represent American ideals; thus, the Indian Removal Act was enforced. The Native Americans travelled hundreds of miles away from their homes towards modern-day Oklahoma at the cost of thousands of deaths and their land. The Native Americans were placed in reservations and acculturation efforts were put into place. Many Native American children were placed into schools meant to acculturate them to conform to American society. The effects of this ethnocentric act are still seen today as Native American languages are going extinct and their culture are diminishing as time passes. However, America has tried to compensate for their discriminative acts by offering financial assistance and opportunities to those of Native American backgrounds and those who live on reservations. Another major example of the removal of indigenous people was that of Japanese Americans at the face of World War II. “At that time, nearly 113,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens, were living in California, Washington, and Oregon” (Burton and Farrell).

Shortly after Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor, there was the issue of Executive Order No. 9066 to relocate anybody of Japanese ancestry to be relocated to designated areas with the help of military force. There are many suspected causes of this, but ethnocentrism seems to be where these reasons stem from. As mentioned earlier, a part of ethnocentrism is outgroup negativity which is essentially a major emphasis on the reason behind this act. According to Burton and Farrell, there were already anti-Asian prejudices, especially against the Chinese due to the gold rush. The Chinese workers immigrated since their labor was needed, but the white workers saw them as competition. This sense of prejudice eventually carried over towards the Japanese when they started to immigrate. Japanese experienced violent attacks individually and on their businesses by whites. The anti-Japanese movement arose from the fear of economic envy especially agriculturally. Pearl Harbor only added more fuel to the fire which did not necessarily help with their case. Despite most of the Japanese being United States citizens, many were arrested transferred to camps in New Mexico and North Dakota. Those who resisted were harmed and, in most cases, killed. Being a citizen was not enough for the Japanese Americans, ethnocentrism was at an all-time high and the Japanese were deemed aliens. Many of the Japanese still identified with the Americans and wanted to volunteer in the war but were rejected due to their ancestry. The self-centeredness of the American ethnic group blinded many from the true reality of the Japanese people. Eventually, after the war, the Japanese were evacuated but came back to realize that their businesses and land were taken away from them, leaving the Japanese population in economic disparity. (Burton and Farrell).  This relates to Oroonoko’s situation in that even though Oroonoko was intellectually capable as the white men and was from royalty, he was still a slave and reduced to animalistic qualities due to his race. Although these events occurred in the 20^th century, similar events are still evident. More recently, ethnocentric oppression has occurred through gentrification specifically directed towards the African American population. Gentrification is “the process by which central urban neighborhoods that have undergone disinvestments and economic decline experienced a reversal reinvestment, and the in-migration of a relatively well-off middle- and upper middle-class population” (Hwang and Sampson 727). With ethnocentrism, a major component is the preference of familiarity which is the point of gentrification, and according to Hwang and Sampson’s text, “Stratification-based explanations for residential selection and segregation center on housing market discrimination and racial composition preferences. All race groups prefer integrated neighborhoods with a substantial presence of the same-race neighbors, with whites having the strongest preference for same-race neighbors and blacks having the weakest” (Hwang and Sampson 728). It highly evident that the whites are ethnocentric to a greater extent when compared to other races. With gentrification, results in the minority filled neighborhoods with economic disadvantages which is reminiscent of what happened to the Japanese Americans even though these events are decades apart, perhaps nearly a century. This is occurring in Chicago as there is an “influx of white middle-class residents invading poor, minority neighborhoods” (Hwang and Sampson 745). Even with a persistent hierarchy among disadvantaged minority neighborhoods, gentrification methods are continuing to shape the contemporary urban landscape in Chicago. (Hwang and Sampson 729). All of this leads to, in a sense, modern-day segregation. The outgroup negativity is especially high as displayed when a white woman responded when asked why should move in if more than three black families lived in her neighborhood, “It seems like the property values drop when black families move in.” (Harris 461). She is insinuating that neighborhoods appear to be of lesser quality whenever black families begin to move in as it makes the neighborhood less desirable. Granted, there could be many underlying reasons for her observation; a blatant reason is “pure discrimination- that whites dislike blacks because they are black” (Harris 461). This is brought up to explain the difficulty of integration. The lady averted her racism by attributing her comment earlier by attributing the fact that blacks do not keep up their houses. This unfair assessment is quite questionable as maintaining a household does not correlate with race. A point is also made that a concern of neighborhood quality when black families are present are that “the higher poverty rates among blacks mean that the average mixed-race neighborhood contains more poor people than does the average, white neighborhood.” (Harris 461). The need in group positivity among the white population is quite expressive and makes it all the clearer as to why discrimination is constantly being brought up. It is quite evident that oppression still exists similar to the oppression experienced by Caliban.

Another way that ethnocentrism has stayed relevant today is through racial prejudice and hate crimes. In America, the common misconception is that the official language of the country is English. That could not be farther from the truth as the United States of America has no official language. This misconception stems from the frequent use of English throughout American society; however, America is considered a melting pot of cultures. Yet knowing this, there are some groups in the population that do not reflect that idea about the country. Although we see this happening more frequently thanks to social media, a recent case of this occurred in Savannah, Georgia, at a McDonalds. Cristina Riofrio, a 19-year-old who was speaking Spanish to her friend, was told by a white man to “speak English”. To add even more to the mistreatment, the man admitted with no hesitation that he is indeed a racist and made the prejudice accusation that Riofro’s came to the country on a boat and made America a horrible place according to NBC News. It is clear that hearing a foreign language other than English provoked the man which could be attributed to his ethnocentric beliefs and ignorance. Unfortunately, such hateful acts of discrimination have not lessened and still proceed to occur daily in society. To reinforce the idea that the American population still exhibit oppressive attitudes towards unfamiliar racial groups, the president himself has been seen on multiple accounts making racist remarks. One, in particular, was directed towards four congresswomen of color which consisted of Rashida Tlaib, Illhan Omar, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and Ayanna Pressley. President Trump wrote in a series of tweets according to NBC News, “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” and “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and we inevitably continue places from which they came.” This is quite ironic as all the women he referred to are United States citizens and three of the four women were all born in America with the exception that Illhan Omar is a Somalian refugee who became a naturalized citizen. Nothing represents the ethnocentrism in America more than the leader of the country exhibiting such discriminative attitudes towards other ethnic groups. Another major instance of an act of discrimination occurred in Milwaukee. A 61-year-old white male military veteran confronted Mahud Villalaz, a Peruvian immigrant who is an American citizen, as he was headed towards a restaurant for dinner. According to Ivan Moreno of Time Magazine, the man told Villalaz, “You cannot park here. You are doing something illegal.” He even accused Villalaz of being in America illegally and invading the country. The white male proceeded to throw battery acid at Mahud and caused second-degree burns on his face. This instance is just one of an increasing rate of hate crimes directed towards immigrant which goes to show the prominence of ethnocentrism in America. The mayor of Milwaukee puts the blame on the President and states, “Everybody knows what’s happening. It’s because the president is talking about it on a daily basis that people feel they have license to go after Hispanic people. And it’s wrong.” Hate crimes like these have occurred throughout history and is often carried out by the white population towards other race groups. Alike to Oroonoko and past mentioned instances, it does not matter how Americanized you are, you will essentially be reduced to the prejudice of your ethnic background regardless of your qualities and actions.

The concept of ethnocentrism is psychological and does not seem to disappear any time soon. The resulting acts of discrimination and oppression from ethnocentrism shown in The Tempest is as prominent now as it was throughout American history and when Shakespeare wrote his plays. Even though The Tempest was written centuries ago, its effect has resonated in today’s society and will continue to be in existence for as long as there are different groups of people.

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