Xenophobia

The word xenophobia is composed of the Greek roots xenos , “what comes from outside” and phobos , “the fear”. This word thus defines literally, “the fear of what comes from outside”.

Feeling of difference to the fear and hatred

In the everyday usage the xenophobia became the Hostilité with regard to the foreign , i.e. of that which does not belong to the same group (national, cultural, linguistic) that oneself, with that which, being foreign, is unknown, because different: one touches here with the concept of Intolérance in front of the cultural Différence or the linguistic Différence as well as in front of the difference in national origin.

The feeling of difference of the other can be very well accompanied by a curiosity and a Tolérance as of an acceptance by this diversity which can result in a mutual enrichment (gastronomy, music etc) and go until the cultural assimilation, religious, etc of the individuals, for example by the means of interethnic marriages. On the other hand, the political economic interests/can make profitable this feeling and exacerbate it by the means of the Propagande, to make competitor a " Enemy hereditary " and to push the conflict to the extreme until the " ethnic Cleaning " (see also Pogrom) and with the attempt at total destruction (see Anti-semitism, Death camp, Nazism, Shoah, conflict between Tutsi S and Hutu S with the Ruanda, Armenian genocide).

The Wars of religion which prevailed in Europe they were also only the pretext advanced by the Église S to preserve their interests up to one still recent time (Ireland, Kosovo). The proposed difference between Moslem S Shiite S and Sunnite S proceeds of the same problems. Extermination of populations be-saying free from culture (" kulturloses Volk") and the repopulation of the territories " nettoyés" following the setting in slavery of the Slaves were one of the objectives of Adolf Hitler.

Hatred of the differences

The difference blamed is defined by sometimes obvious criteria like the language, the habits, the color of the skin, the sexual behavior (see Homophobie) but it can also be hardly perceptible, a simple accent in the pronunciation indicating the man to cut down (etymology of the word " barbarian "). The hatred of the other finds also birth in the membership definite in an arbitrary way such as for example a club of Football (Hooliganisme).

Xenophobia is often confused in the language running with the Racisme, to indicate an attitude of contempt and hostility, being able to go until violence, towards individuals belonging to a different Ethnie (in this last case one will speak sometimes about Ethnophobie, more rarely of Tribal ism).

FOOT-NOTE: Some insist on the difference between the concepts of xenophobia and racism.

  • xenophobia is before a whole feeling, a passion or a prejudice, which come from a confrontation between the groups and differentiate the memberships using Stéréotype S.
  • racism is born from xenophobia, but the door with its paroxysm and Formula One a specific Idéologie around the idea of the superiority of a category of population on another starting from variable criteria, generally based on physical appearance.

Forms taken

August 1st

See too

Simple: Xenophobia

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