Americentrism

Americentrism, also known as American-centrism or US-centrism, is a tendency to assume the culture of the United States is more important than those of other countries or to judge foreign cultures based on American cultural standards. It refers to the practice of viewing the world from an overly US-focused perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of American culture. The term is not to be confused with American exceptionalism, which is the assertion that the United States is qualitatively different from other nations and is often accompanied by the notion that the United States has superiority over every other nation. Scholarship of Americentrism traces the ideological system's origins, historically, to the late 1700s following the established independence of the United States. Americentrism is presented as a shift from Eurocentrism that idolizes the newly founded United States' ideals of freedom and democracy. Such scholarship itself was initially built off of Jim Blaut's 1980s scholarship of Eurocentrism by Geographer Richard Peet whom coined the term in his 2005 journal, From Eurocentrism to Americanism. American television networks have been perceived to contain an Americentric bias in the selection of their material. Another instance of Americentrism is in the high focus companies have on US markets in relation to others. Often, products produced and developed outside the US are still marketed as typically American. According to the European Commission, internet governance (in particular that related to the NSA) is too Americentric. It criticized the major role of American company ICANN in its administration. The English Wikipedia has been criticized for having an Americentric systemic bias with regards to its occasional preference towards US English sources, language, and spelling. Critics of Americentrism denote the ideology in fear of misunderstandings between peoples or nations, and in some cases, escalating into severe racial conflicts or even wars.