Eurocentrism

Tell me again, about how he’s ‘weird’.

Tell me again, about how his statistics aren’t ‘ideal’.

Tell me again, how my Southeast Asian brother doesn’t fit your American standards.

Tell me again, where I live. Tell me who I am. Eurocentrism is defined as an exclusionist view which judges global issues against a European or European American standard, regarding those standards above any others.

Eurocentrism serves as a basis for prejudice. Though Eurocentrism has significantly impacted many issues (some even relating to health), little research exists on the subject.

The pressure to “fit in” and become more “Americanized” may prompt non-Western individuals to assimilate and abandon their own personal and cultural preferences.

Eurocentrism isn’t just a societal issue. It’s also medical when most individuals (even when not dwelling in European / American areas) are diagnosed and medically treated according to eurocentric standards. Every year, in the United States alone, 12 million people are affected by medical diagnostic errors, resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 deaths. Women and minorities are 20 to 30 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed.

For example, African American boys are diagnosed with behavioral disorders in greater proportions than their white counterparts because Eurocentric standards of so-called conduct are used to judge these children, ultimately resulting in faster, inaccurate diagnosis.

Another instance of this was when eurocentrism caused a delay in effectively finding solutions regarding the recent pandemic by tearing apart societies and causing an increase in racism-based crimes especially against Asians. This was due to the western world’s exoticization of the pandemic, in which they placed blame onto countries for practices that these countries didn’t see or understand any wrong in. It was immediately considered to be a story of a threat “coming from afar”, removing personal blame from the west and adding an unfounded sense of heroism. This divided societies and added more unrest to an already chaotic global pandemic.

The western standards and judgment points of health within the World Health Organization ignored the factors that non-Western countries took into consideration when addressing health and safety issues such as:

• environmental contamination and degradation

• physical and economic determinants of health care access

• inequality in health care access

• physical and psychological harm

• poverty

• availability of potable water

• foodstuffs

• crops

• lack of drinking water and electricity

This resulted in inefficient addressment of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as other societal issues of European societies..

Sources: http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/counseling-psychology/multicultural-counseling/eurocentrism/ https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2021/06/11/eurocentric-response-covid-western-ideas-health/ https://ucsdguardian.org/2021/09/26/global-repercussions-of-eurocentrism/ https://www.healthline.com/health-news/many-people-experience-getting-misdiagnosed