Patriotism, Racism, and the Disutility of the Ethnocentrism Concept

Abstract

Abstract The theory underlying the concept of ethnocentrism embodies the assumption that thinking well of one's own group entails looking down on the members of other groups. Ray (1974), however, has shown that in a sample drawn from working-class suburbs of Sydney, Australia, Australian patriotism showed little relationship with racial attitudes. Because working-class attitudes could generally be poorly organized and because racial attitudes in Australia could be affected by the relative absence of blacks, similar studies were carried out by using a random sample from South Africa: 106 whites in Bloemfontein and 101 Indians in Durban. Attitude toward South Africa was found to show only a slight relationship with racism among both samples. The theory underlying the ethnocentrism concept would then appear to be essentially false.