Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 09:26:23 -0400
I'd like to try to address this issue at the level of the philosophical reading of culture. What is the meaning of citizenship and what assumptions underlie the constitution of a good education? We have trouble identifying the place culture should be in our understanding of ourselves as Americans since historically Americans substitute race and class definitions for cultural definitions. I believe as African-Americans confront this in these terms much clarification is possible. To that end, starting with a quote, I would trace my reading of the issue:
>In article 5637@cs.cornell.edu, murthy@cs.cornell.edu (Chet Murthy) writes:
My passion and anger comes from seeing the use of racial divisions where the proper criteria should be economic, geographic, and class- based. Feminist women wouldn't stand for it, and I won't, either.--chet--
there is no "proper" cultural criteria? our cultural
experience is not simply "race" based--a reactionary
response to NOT being white... don't *we* deserve
acknowledgement of internal factors--must every criteria
be externally based?
the mellow sez:
Without going into much detail, this is precisely the difference between traditional 'white liberals' which Cornel West describes as 'liberal structuralists' and 'black liberals'. Though I suspect Radney would not consider herself a liberal, the object of political and economic development as the black community would define her thus from the liberal structuralist point of view (which often co-opts). Yet the critical distance is closer for activists *in* or *of* the community who consequently recognize the cultural element.Everyone in this forum agrees that drug abuse, illiteracy, unemployment poor health and crime devastate African-American enclaves remaining from the legacy of housing discrimination, but it is this injection of culture into the question of solutions which confuses. If we educate without respect to the cultural question, we do so at the expense of African-Americans. Since this is the case, and for other reasons as well, a properly educated *citizen* should be taught to understand how and why American culture works and what it should be. This should be done from a philosophical standpoint. I would argue for the Pragmatists' approach.
I believe the cultural question to be one of immense significance and know quite clearly that even neither Marx, nor Mill had appropriate answers. I would say that the American Pragmatists have come closest to building a framework for providing solutions. It must be viewed at this level because, as we debate this, we should try to rememember that we cannot be simply motivated from our distance. Americans seem to need to be single minded about a goal, then we can move. Raisons d'etre for the armed services are well known, but our public life is not so philosophically organized. No doubt it is wartime experience that makes these cultural, economic and often political differences 'disappear' as resources are organized for education et al. Yet that cannot be our best basis.
(To flesh this out, consider military training as the educational model. It has no respect for politics, economics or cultural differences. A soldier is not a 'human being' but what a soldier is philosophically is well understood. Thus in educating the soldier we have no fundamental problem. - A citizen, on the other hand is an entirely different matter)
I beleive African-Americans and Jews to have critical masses in their populations and substantial cultural differences from those who immigrated here as very poor seekers to raise the cultural question of citizenship. I only make the parallel in terms of numbers and sizes of their enclaves, there are other groups and other reasons for Jews and African Americans. But significantly, thinkers such as Reinhold Neihbur and W.E.B DuBois have parallels when seen from the Pragmatist's standpoint.
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As an African-American, I see it as part of my tradition to raise the cultural question which I do as a matter of 'identity' in choosing to 'think black' (c.f. Reconstruction V1N3 p46). This is bolstered by academic progress with respect to critical studies as they deliver more existential tools and strategies. That builds upon psychological perspectives which any practicing doctorate level therapist will gladly describe. As well, a thorough appreciation (learned) of explicitly and implicitly black cultural creations (literature, drama, music, crafts) adds. All of these I see in a continuum of 'internal' motivations contained within the 'talented tenth' as they lead and latent in black communities everywhere in America. Again this is identity raising the cultural question.As an African-American, I also see the raising of the cultural question as a matter of practical response. As Americans we have successes fairly well defined vis a vis the 'American Dream'. In its political, economic and class (structuralist) manifestations one could say there are mainstream benchmarks. A 'successful' American therefore is assumed to reach a certain level of political power, economic security and class status. Once this is achieved, one is considered 'free' just as we consider graduation from college, for example, a liberating experience. Above a certain level, we are expected to be granted reprieve from the expectations of say a poor seeking immigrant. Indicators of this freedom might be acceptance of your credit card anywhere in America, a car, membership in a job related organization etc. You are then 'free' to do whatever you want within the law, which mostly provides for your ability to remain secure against arbitrary theft of political, economic and to some degree class achievements. When substantial numbers of African-Americans reach this level (which was taken for granted by those I grew up with) what then is the cultural validation? Whether or not you are internally motivated to 'act black' or 'think black' following the above paragraph, practical achievement according to American political, economic and class standards as an African-American is different. Regardless of whether or not they are concerted or random, racist or not, ignorant or informed, there are external pressures that make it different for me in achieving these standards and make it different for me after having achieved them. I am treated differently and have different expectations placed on me *without* any reference or inquiry made as to my *internal* motivations or questions of identity. I am not saying that these pressures are categorically negative or positive either, just significantly different. Thus I raise a cultural question as a practical response to this.
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From this perspective I ask the questions about education. The goal of education in which the public should have any say is to create in people the proper citizen. Yet what has been considered legitimate and proper has also allowed the destruction of African-American (and other) communities. It is not simple 'respect for diversity' which adequately combats that destruction. There must be something built into us that alerts us. Yet our national politics, economics, and class loyalties allow us to ignore this destruction. I believe that somehow, forging better elements of American culture, will give us a common language which transcends such divisions just as race currently does. I know that in becoming a 'mainstream citizen' African-Americans and Jews alike have had to defeat the definitions which castigated them, and with this wisdom have achieved despite opposition. In particular, though, it is their cultural influence which has changed what this country is and how it sees itself.Black folk do not bind primarily upon the grounds of racial solidarity. This may be hard for nons to see but it is fundamentally true. What has been miscast as 'self-segregated neighborhoods' at the level of housing is true at the individual and group association level. That is to say, 'let's get a bunch of black people together and form a neighborhood' doesn't happen but substitute political action group or cultural interest group and you have a real situation. When this is done on cultural terms, such as the reading of Terry McMillan, or the watching of the Cosby Show or the listening to Earth Wind and Fire, it transcends economic, political and class barriers. There is something very tangible about the experience that is black but not racial. Born of our ways, these can transalate into political or economic actions. There is a moral theatre in our cultural productions which motivates us especially. In an August Wilson play or an episode of Roc we look at ourselves and we don't see politics or economics or class or race first. We see us.
Even through bitter opposition regarding the political reading of current affairs, I know black 'conservatives' and 'liberals' alike find common motivations. It's not family or church values as some kind of distinct feature which is either there or not, but a continuum of expressions which are authentic, familiar and meaningful.
Still, this has yet to develop. What is real education in the West is popular media. As I have said before, its ability to transform is more powerful than any culture's ability to replicate itself. In my view, this is the lesson of the 20th century. Mass communication wins. Orwell & Huxley mis- predicted that it would be state controlled in the West, but it is the capitalists that have made us alphas, betas and gammas. Be that as it may, the quest for airtime as a public expression of who we are and what we do and the implicit understanding that it most concretely affects our public facility is charged and real. It was images of fire-hosed Negros that motivated a nation to recognize black civil rights, not the writings of Delany or DuBois. The philosophical framework is necessary and crucial but the effectiveness is measured in audience share.
We consider the audience when we produce educational or cultural creations. Doing so, what do we expect? How do we expect the implementation of our ideas to happen? Who will be the agents of change? What is the praxis? How do our philosophical ideas meet with practical considerations? How is it recycled and changed?