History of Deculturalization in the USA

RD Hobbs, Ed.D. 2015 Monograph Review of:

Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality; A Brief History of the

Education of Dominated Cultures in the United States (7 th Edition) by Joel
Spring

APA citation

Spring, Joel (2013). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality; A

brief history of the education of dominated cultures in the United States
(7th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

This review covers monograph content for the purpose of sharing

historical information on legislation and court decisions on racism and
education. The text reflects current concerns in sociolinguistics on
preserving minority languages. The support of minority language
learning in dominant language contexts offers benefits to individual
brain development as well as the improvement of social
communicativeness and learning benefits. Preserving mother tongues
offers cultural preservation benefits as well as self-esteem and
motivation connected to the appreciation of self-identity. University
administrators select this text as one of the alternative resources for
graduate courses focusing on multicultural leadership.

Chapters:

1. Deculturalization and the Claim of Racial and Cultural Superiority

by Anglo-Americans
2. Native Americans: Deculturalization, Schooling, Globalization, and
Inequality
3. African American: Globalization and the African Diaspora
4. Asian Americans: Exclusion and Segregation
5. Hispanic/Latino Americans: Exclusion and Segregation
6. The Great Civil Rights Movement and the New Culture Wars
7. Resegregation of American Schools in a “Post-Racial” Society
In the preface, author Joel Spring explains that his focus is on the denial
of linguistic, thereby cultural, rights of minorities in the USA, and that
other nations also deny rights to minorities regarding the teaching and
using of their languages in schools and public environments. The
minorities in the USA discussed by Spring (2013) include: Africans,
Chinese, Hawaiians, Mexicans, Native Americans, and Puerto Ricans.
Spring explained that equality in the USA originally meant equality
among white men and that the concept of equality changed over time.

In Chapter One, Spring (2013) points out that the difference between
civil rights in the 19th century and the 20th century is that the 19th
century did away with slavery while the 20 th century attempted to do
away with segregation. The 21st century, according to Spring (2013),
brought about resegregation by promoting one-language policies via
Common Core Standards. Spring (2013) lists the [often violent] racial
and cultural conflicts throughout US history. From a global perspective,
genocide and deculturalization have occurred throughout the world.
Dominant cultures typically demand assimilation. Minorities are
sometimes denied education. Spring (2013) refers to hybridity as the
occurrence of minorities who maintain their languages and cultures in
the privacy of their homes while assimilating the dominant language
and culture outside of their homes. According to Spring (2013), Native
American women had greater rights and influence than other American
women, and leaders sought to change Native American culture so they
would embrace consumerism and the value of owning personal
property.

In Chapter Two, Spring (2013) offers a timeline (p. 23) depicting the
Native American denial of citizenship by the USA in 1790, removal from
their lands in 1830, granting of citizenship to five tribes in 1901, and
granting of citizenship to all tribes in 1924, but not granting citizenship
to immigrant Asians. Another timeline (p. 24) demonstrates
deculturalization of Native Americans through education throughout
the 1800s. Even missionaries sought to change Native American
cultures through “literary, moral, and religious instruction” (p. 26).
Although missionaries translated the Native American languages into
written text, the purpose was to translate religious texts rather than
preserve the history and culture. Spring (2013) explained the policy
reversal in 1928 based on the Meriam Report, but noted that policies
changed again to the reverse in the 1950s and 1960s.

In Chapter Three, Joel Spring focused on Africans transported to North,

Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean by the British,
Spanish, and Portuguese “imperialists.” Later, the British also used India
as a source for labor to Africa, America, and Asia. On pages 42 and 43,
Spring (2013) offers a timeline from 1790 to 1965 depriving Africans of
citizenship until 1866, stipulating only native-born Africans, but revised
in 1868 and 1870 to include the possibility of naturalization. However,
restrictions on voting rights continued until the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Segregation continued to be protected by law until 1954. Spring (2013)
offers a timeline on African American education on pages 46 and 47.
Southern states banned education to African slaves until 1835.
Massachusetts was the first state to ban segregation; the Massachusetts
ban on segregation occurred in 1855. Literacy had been a punishable
crime for slaves, so some risk-taking Africans learned to read in secret.

In Chapter Four, Joel Spring discusses Asian migration and the exclusion
and segregation of Asian Americans. Spring (2013) delineates the
Chinese into 19 Chinese groups around the globe: American naturalized,
American-born, Argentinian, Australian, Vietnamese, British, Burmese,
Canadian, Cayman, Cuban, Filipino, Indonesian, Malaysian, Mauritian,
Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Singaporean, South African, and Thai (add
‘Chinese’ to each location to accurately depict the sub-ethnic diaspora).
According to Spring (2013), the Korean diaspora resulted in the motive
to escape Japanese rule after Japan colonized Korea in 1910. Spring
(2013) offers an Asian American Citizenship Time Line (pp. 70-71) that
demonstrates that it took 175 years to end discrimination against
Asians. The Region of Birth of Foreign-Born Population, 1850-1930 (p.
71) reveals a growing trend in 20-year increments in the percentage of
foreign-born Asians in the USA from ½% to nearly 2%. Then, the table
on page 75 reveals in 10-year increments from 1960 to 1990 that the
percentage of foreign-born Asians in the USA grew from 5% to 26%.
Next, Spring (2013) delineates USA Asian ethnic origin as
approximately: 24% Chinese, 20% Filipino, 12% Japanese, 12% Asian
Indian, 11% Korean, 9% Vietnamese, and then hovering around 2% are
Cambodians, Laotians, Hmongs, and Thai with another 4% comprised of
Bangladeshi, Malaysian, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Pakistani. The
Asian American Education Time Line on page 77 reveals that it took 102
years for Asians to finally achieve integration and equality from 1872,
when Asians were excluded, to 1885, 1906, 1924, and 1927, when
Asians were segregated in various USA locations, then to 1974 when
Asians finally achieved what African Americans had achieved two
decades previously.

In Chapter Five, Spring (2013) focuses on Hispanic and Latino

Americans regarding their exclusion and segregation. The
Hispanic/Latino Education Time Line on pages 90 and 91 reveals that
early legislation mandated English-only curriculum, and that later, laws
allowed segregation of Mexicans. Finally, in 1951, Spanish was restored
as the Puerto Rican language of instruction. In summary, Spring (2013)
lists six methods to diminish minority cultures: 1) segregation and
isolation, 2) forcing the use of the dominant language [English in USA],
3) curriculum reflecting the dominant group, 4) textbooks that reflect
content and culture of the dominant group, 5) denial of minority
religious and cultural expression, and 6) hiring of teachers from the
dominant group.

In Chapter Six, Spring (2013) discusses civil rights and culture wars.
Linguistic and cultural genocide as well as segregation of minorities
were central issues. The Hispanic/Latino Civil Rights Education Time
Line on page 124 follows the struggle from 1946 to 1974. Bicultural
education became a heavily debated topic. Afrocentric education
became another hot topic. In the conclusion to Chapter 6, Spring (2013)
shared “A Universal Covenant of Linguistic Human Rights” that was
originally published in 2000 by Tove Skutnabb-Kangas in her
monograph Linguistic Genocide in Education or Worldwide Diversity and
Human Rights?

In Chapter Seven, Spring (2013) asserts that mandated school standards

served to segregate in American schools, then, Spring (2013) labels the
21st century USA as “post-racial” by offering an explanation on how
perspectives on race have changed. The funding of schools is not equal.
The implication is that re-segregation occurs along socio-economic
boundaries. Low income can be correlated with low achievement. It
seems that the group that needs more education funding receives less.
Spring (2013) offers specific definitions of racial categories as mandated
by the US government. Nearly 1% of the population does not know their
race and almost 2% labeled as “white” refused to answer the racial
question reflected in a table published in a Harvard University Press
monograph.

Following each chapter is a NOTES section. Each section of NOTES is at

least two pages long. The Notes contain bibliographic information. The
index starts on page 163 and finishes on page 174.