Ethnocentrism in Guam
By Brandon Dawson
Ethnocentrism is viewing people’s actions or beliefs through one’s own cultural lens instead of using the other people’s culture as a frame of reference. Guam’s treatment has been greatly influenced by ethnocentrism, especially in the early 20th century. In the early 1900s, a series of Supreme Court cases known as the “Insular Cases”, in which the court held that the rights given to American citizens in the Constitution applied only to people in what the court called “incorporated territories”. People in other territories, called “unincorporated”, were given less rights. The Court ruled that American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands were all unincorporated territories. These territories were deemed unincorporated in Downes v. Bidwell due in part to the fact that they were inhabited by “alien races” for whom the “administration of government and justice according to Anglo-Saxon principles may for a time be impossible.” This treatment continues to this day, over 100 years later. Residents of unincorporated territories don’t have the same rights as those living in one of the 50 states. Those in American Samoa aren’t even granted American citizenship. People living in unincorporated territories can’t vote in general elections, don’t have a voting representative in congress, and are barred from some federal social programs, such as SSI and certain Medicare subsidies. As recently as April of 2022, the Supreme Court affirmed in United States v. Vaello-Madero that the 5th amendment’s due process clause and the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause do not ensure that residents of unincorporated territories can be eligible for federal aid. Residents of Guam, as well as all other unincorporated territories of the United States are still treated worse than their counterparts on the mainland due to their cultural values and practices being viewed through the ethnocentric lens of early 19th century American imperialists following the Spanish-American war.