Orientalism

• Traditional Japanese woman.Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  In many academic discourses cultural conflict has been framed as Orientalism based on the classic work of Edward Said. Orientalism is characterized as a process whereby white Europeans ascribed theories of inferiority to cultures they deemed "other" than theirs. Heavily influenced by the Social Darwinist ideas that the white race was physically and intellectually superior, it was ultimately a weapon used to justify imperialism and hegemony. Orientalist ideology has perpetuated dehumanizing theories and myths that keep Japanese and Native Americans locked into European/American imaginations as "backward" or even savage.
  
  

Stereotypes

• Orientalist "othering" manifests today most commonly in stereotypes of Japanese and Native American people. Stereotypes are generalizations or assumptions ascribed to all members of a group often involving degrading images of those people. Common stereotypes show up as insulting cartoon caricatures or bad jokes. Native American stereotypes persist most pervasively in sports team mascots. Stereotypes are harmful because they prohibit accurate understandings of minority cultures especially in youth who are most susceptible to the influences of popular media.
  
  

World War II

• Cultural conflicts between Japanese and Americans were perhaps their highest during World War II. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 precipitated the U.S. entrance into the war. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are generally credited as ending the war but conflict surrounds debates about what the primary influences were that led President Truman's decision to use the bomb. Studies reveal that racist anti-Japanese propaganda -- in the form of many false stereotypes -- fueled popular support for his decision.
  
  

Native American

• Cultural conflicts associated with Native Americans can be attributed to the history of U.S. colonialism and inherent differences in worldviews. Native American cultural world views emphasize collective rights, which is a problematic framework for European-dominated Western legal systems. Land ownership is invested in individuals and was used to separate Indians from their lands and cultures in the years of the Dawes Act. Current problems are related to the protection of sacred sites as federal law contains few avenues to protect ancient sacred places from desecration and preserve them for Native ceremonial use.