[Mpls] Doug Grow's Mythology

[Michael Atherton]

Wizard Marks wrote:

> WM: There's something wrong with the logic here. Both African 
> American and American Indian peoples were deliberately denied 
> their cultures. Beaten and murdered for using their own languages 
> (primary carrier of a culture), dragged away/marched away from 
> their homes, and separated from each other. For all practical 
> purposes these groups no longer have their own integrated cultures. 
> What they do have is imposed on them by the dominant culture as a 
> negative. Further skewering the issue is the fact that the dominant 
> culture has imposed rigid and insistent poverty on these groups for 
> longer than USA has been a nation. Add to that the deliberate refusal 
> to acknowledge their contributions to the general welfare and you get 
> perfect conditions for producing failures and making successes more 
> difficult to achieve for members of the groups.

There's nothing wrong with the logic.  In fact, the facts you cite
support my argument.  My point is that culture is a more important
determinant of academic success than poverty.  I would claim that
the facts you cite indicate why Black and Indian cultures no longer
support knowledge and learning as being important goals, if they
ever did.  You have to keep in mind that it is necessary to look back
at the individual African and Indian cultures to know how important
learning was to them.  Not all cultures have placed the same emphasis
on knowledge and learning.  Final point, no matter how ravaged a 
culture is from it's traditions, there is still a culture even if it
is one of a defeated people.

The important question here is how do we address the problem of
Black and Indian American cultures lack of emphasis and support for
education and academic success?

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park