Rod Hay wrote: > > I would ask those who are interested in the question of racism to look at > the following article. I would appreciate comments. > Rod, The Next City is an extreme right wing publication. I used to get it free when I subscribed the the Globe&Mail. The author of the article cites Sowell, George Gilder and many other reactionaries while mentioning only one progressive source: Bowles&Gintis. His thesis is the tired old one that blames failure in the formal education system on poor 'culture', lack of family cohesion, poor family structure, single parents and a general 'culture of underachievement' and 'lack of motivation'. This is the same argument used by diffusionists and imperialists in explaining why the southern hemisphere is impoverished. Its a blaming-the-victim argument. If only those dumb colored people were smart like us white people and valued education and had 'achievement motivation' and 'entrepeneurial values'. Why is there a lack of family cohesion and so many single parents? If groups who 'underachieve' in school were raised in the same socioeconomic environment as 'overachievers' what would be the result? Further, the author gives a crude caricature of Marxist explanations saying they are purely structural leaving out agency. The author gives no evidence that he is familiar with the finest Marxist work on race e.g. David Roediger, Theodore Allen and many others. He uses an equally crude meth. individualism to refute his Marxist strawman. I will just say that given the crap that is taught in public schools no wonder students drop out and don't do their homework. I dropped out of highschool twice. Sam Pawlett
