Summary Of Deculturalization And Struggle For Equality

Paper #1
In Joel Spring’s, “Deculturalization and Struggle for Equality”, he argues that during the construction of the new world (contemporary United States) nonwhite racial groups were created by elitist in order to have them deculturalized and maintain a system of racial superiority. Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Blacks and Asians were each subject to systematic oppression in regards to racial formation, deculturalization, segregation and nation building. These dominated groups share the struggle of equality in this nation where “All men are equal” brought upon them by educational policies contrary to their socioeconomic interest and appealing to Euro-Americans.
Racial formation is a vast summation of signifying actions and

social structures that clash in creation of complex relationships and identities that is a labeled race. Throughout the history of the United States, a large array of strategies were engaged in regarding education that took advantage of nonwhites. Since policies by those who supposedly “protect our rights” attempted to eradicate social, economic and cultural aspirations, dominated groups were more often than not suspicious of the schools interests. According to John Ogby, “children from dominated cultures often failed school because they considered the school to be representative of the dominant white culture” (Spring, 101). This portrays racial formation having an effect on equality. “Acting white” meant to attempt to do well in school because policies on education had favorable outcomes for whites, who as a result did well. If someone of color attempted to “act white” they are “betraying” their culture for doing so. This anti school culture is attached to being a nonwhite due to Euro American’s racial identity of doing well in school and nonwhite’s racial identity of not succeeding. As a result nonwhite “children will not attain the educational credentials that are required for participation in the mainstream economy”(Spring,101). The Documentary In class demonstrates that this is still a problem. One Latino student became subject to the “labeling theory” when he claimed that his school made him feel unwanted and unworthy so much that he eventually embraced the “dumb kid” role as a part of himself.
When a nation sets out a full conquest, as the United States did, it is logical to engage in educational policies of “deculturalization” in order to “control and gain the allegiance of the conquered people” (Spring, 2).

Deculturalization is the attempt to strip cultures, language, and religion and to “civilize” another people. Methods of deculturalization included isolation, change of language, imposition through curriculum and textbooks, denial of expression and use of teachers of the superior group. The first method I mentioned, isolation, was used with Native Americans in attempt to not have to result to physical confrontation for the acquirement of more land. Efforts to “civilize” the Native Americans was the KEY to more land which means more money which means more power and inevitably more oppression of nonwhites. By having dropped their culture, natives become “Americanized” thus contributing “positively” to those racially superior. The land removal policies of the 1830’s moved natives west and federally funded schools that again, attempted to “civilize” for capital gain. I feel that deculturalization of this caliber is no longer as it was before. I did however attend a High school with a graduating class that did not have any white people so the only culture around was that of Mexican

Americans.
One of the darkest eras in the history of the United States is that of the Slave Trade.

When the colonist set for the new world a cheap source of labor was needed in order to literally build the new nation. Today a cheap labor source is acquired through different means, that is, Segregation. Segregation can be defined as the separation of students of the basis of their race to assure an “inexpensive source of labor” (Spring 43). Economic exploitation through education encompasses an inferior education where students are left in the dark because of the minimal chance of school as a means for economic achievement. This adds on to one group of people (whites) to feeling financially superior to others because of resulting classes. The legal doctrine “separate but equal” justified the segregation of schools although universally the schools for nonwhites were greatly underfinanced compared to those of whites. In Brown V. Board of Education, the verdict is overturned and made “Separate is not Equal” ending segregation in schools, well in a very slow manner. Segregation still factors a huge roll in American Education. Again, the high school I attended was predominantly Mexican and compared to other schools I have visited there is a huge gap in the financial support of each institution. Only 10 of 433 students that I graduated with are still in college, the 423 left are either convicts, dead, or working minimum wage jobs, not as a source of leisurely expenses but as a means of

living.
When a state uses its power to form a national identity they are “nation building”. To create a new nation the United States used its power to engage in programs that attempt to birth a shared universal identity amongst individuals. For example, the only English policies put forth in schools attempted to make English the only manner of communication in Puerto Rican and Native American schools. National schooling programs that resulted from the “American Board for foreign missionaries” and the “Civilization Fund Act in 1819” established the importance of ideology and mythology in nation building for attempting to convert the natives to Christianity. The problem with the way that nation building was engaged in is that it was at the expense of other peoples. By having children convert from no English to all English in a drastically short amount of time “One Puerto Rican teacher complained… English was having a disastrous effect on students” (Spring, 35). This would have the Spanish speaking student perplexed and getting behind while the Euro- American kid advances smoothly not having to face the struggle for equality that the former has to endure.
After the American Revolution the United States found their selves as an independent nation that needed an identity. The new independent nation then carried out its platform and in the process oppressed nonwhite immigrants with the justification of forming a distinctive homogenous culture through racial formation by creating hierarchy of social classes, through deculturalization by language policies, through segregation by race and lastly by the naïve notion that trying to do away with an individual’s culture to replace it with a new one without any conflict.