The global citizenship conversation reinforce the existing belief that those in non-Western societies are ‘less fortunate’ and ‘worse off’. By painting individuals in these societies as such, those in Western societies are immediately elevated while those who do not exist in Western societies are put at a disadvantage. Consequently, their communities, customs, way of life and even their lives themselves are viewed as less important and their overall worldviews are marginalized.

Global citizenship conversations also prompts the idea that there are two distinctly different types of societies; Western and non-Western. The idea that these societies are different creates a mental distance between the two which allows for an ‘us versus them’ mentality to be formed. In such cases, the ‘us’ population (Western society) feels superior to the ‘them’ population (non-Western society).  Because of this feeling of superiority, the ‘us’ population often views and treats the ‘them’ population negatively.

Historically, ‘us versus them’ mentalities and feelings of superiority has led to ideas such as ‘the white man’s burden’ which was said to ‘justify’ colonization and slavery. In the 1700’s, Caucasian’s (the ‘us’ population) saw African’s (the ‘them’ population) as different than themselves. This perceived difference created a distance between the two populations in the Caucasian’s minds. This distance allowed Caucasian’s to think of themselves as superior and think of African’s as savage, inhuman and therefore inherently lesser. These views and attitudes towards the African population then used to ‘justify’ enslaving the African population, as well as the atrocious acts committed towards Africans. This was done by arguing that the Caucasian’s knew what was best for the African population. However, in this case, and in many others, all the Caucasian’s really did was take advantage of, mistreat and abuse those they deemed to be lesser.