What else?

There are two interesting and important concepts in anthropology, namely ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Ethnocentrism or ethnocentricity, as its name suggests, simply means thinking of ones own ethnicity, culture, or any type or group that the person belongs to as the center of everything. Most people by far are ethnocentrist which makes sense; most of the people tend to look at the world from the perspective of their own belief systems and cultural values. As these people also judge others based on their own viewpoints, so much misunderstanding may happen when people from different cultures come into any kind of relationship with each other.

In contrast to ethnocentrism, there is the idea of cultural relativism. Cultural relativism takes into account the differences among cultures. Something that is wrong in one specific culture may be absolutely right in another one and vice versa (e.g. the famous “thumbs up” gesture in Western culture means support and approval, while the exact same gesture in Middle East countries conveys an insult).

I think the best way of moving away from ethnocentrism (which can potentially lead to racism) is reading about other cultures, hanging out with people with different ethnicities and trying to be nonjudgmental!