Xenophobia means “fear of other”.
People who are xenophobic tend to fear people who don’t look like them, talk like them, act like them, or have different habits, lifestyles, education levels, religious preferences, or mannerisms. When xenophobia is extreme in a Cluster B thinker, the person may have an intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.
However, they could have the same fear about a neighborhood family that does not look just like theirs. Or, they might fear people of another color, sexual orientation, religious background, or gender.
Xenophobic people are also stranger fearing, meaning they tend to fear strangers in general or be irrationally leery of any culture, habit, or mannerism another human being might have that makes them appear strange to the egocentric, shallow, and narrow-minded thinker.
While people who are xenophobic tend to be less educated and they tend to avoid travel, not all who are disdainful of other cultures spend their lives landlocked to a particular place or small community. Some actually are forced to travel for business or in the military.
Such folks tend to bring their haughty, entitlement based, egocentric and ridiculous notions with them, tending to make sour faces and abusive commentary both to and about everyone they meet or encounter on the road.
Xenophobics are easy to spot both in your hometown as well as in a boardroom or classroom. Watch their microexpressions when another person mentions something or someone they don’t like — for instance, what face does a Xenophobic American make when you try to take them to an ethnic restaurant? How about the look of a haughty and disdainful Frenchman who has no interest in helping an American tourist figure out how to find a historical landmark in the city or to let them know the best local restaurants in a place like Paris to try?
Xenophobic people might do something like walk to the other side of the street to avoid having to speak to a homeless person. They might refuse to make eye contact on the street or in a grocery shopping line with a person whose skin color does not match their own — regardless of the hue or national origin variety.
Or, they might only socialize with people from one particular church or religious organization. Tending to raise their children in such a way that the child learns to simultaneously fear and despise anything and anyone who is not just like them or that was not something their mother and father approved of doing, being, saying, eating, or owning, the offspring of such thinkers grow up to be both abusive to others by habit without even caring and losing out on the opportunity to foster empathy, human companionship, reciprocally respectful relationships, and mindful cultural sharing.
Bottom line, Xenophobia is nothing more than the culturally nurtured and taught social habit fearing while invalidating and shaming others.
