Xenophobe

Value
Common, Strong: 15 Points • Common, Total: 20 Points
Description
A character with this Psychological Complication possesses a great fear and contempt for strangers or outsiders, especially foreigners or people with a different cultural background from their own, as well as a hatred of the unfamiliar. It can extend to not just a fear or aversion to people from other countries, but to other cultures, subcultures, and belief systems different from that of the character. Anyone whose origins, religion, personal beliefs, habits, language, orientations, or any other criteria that makes them "different" from the character could legitimately be the target of the character's Xenophobia. A person who is Xenophobic is rarely physically aggressive against the objects of their hatred, but such attitudes can result in political campaigns for cultural or linquistic purification, isolationism, and a general aversion to foreign "entanglements".
While the character might consciously acknowledge the aversion (or even hatred) aspects of this Complication, they very rarely are aware of the fear aspects. A Xenophobic person has to genuinely believe at some level that the target is in fact a foreigner. Note that this does not require the target of the character's aversion actually be a foreigner... just to be perceived as one... to spark this sort of reaction.
In some contexts, the term Xenophobia and Racism are used interchangeably, though this is inaccurate. While similar in cause and expression, being a Xenophobe isn't the same thing as being a Racist; the Xenophobic person doesn't differentiate between the color of a person's skin. Rather, its all about the cultural origin of the other person. To clarify, disliking a French person who just happens to be black because they come from France is being Xenophobic; disliking a French person who just happens to be black because they are black is being Racist).
Some Xenophobes are non-specific; that is, they dislike people from all other cultures but their own. Others are quite specific; they have nothing against most foreigners in general, but hate and fear people from one particular nation or culture. This differentiation can be quite specific, sometimes to a surprising degree For example, an 'Anglophobe', who hates and fears English people, might very well not have the same reaction to Scottish people, for the simple reason than they are not English, despite the obvious similarities between the English and the Scottish. The specificity can be quite large, though probably should not be allowed if it got too ridiculous (it isn't advised, for example, that the GM allow a character to be Xenophobic against "people who live on 39th Street", for example.
In science fiction campaigns, being Xenophobic might refer to a fear or hatred of extraterrestrial cultures or beings. In this, it is possibly closer to being Racism than it would be normally, especially when dealing with mono-ethnic aliens.
See Also
Nationalist, Object of Discrimination, Phobia, Prejudice, Racism, Walking, Talking Stereotype, Xenophile
Category:Complications
Category:Psychological Complications
Category:Psychological Complications W - X
Category:Hatreds
Category:Prejudices