Culture vs Social
after months of contemplating the nature of cultural history and social history: what is culture? Where does culture end and society begin? Here is an essay by Orlando Patterson, asserting that social scientists are allergic to cultural explanations of poverty, in this case, poverty in black america.
First of all, we should note his definition of culture: a group's cultural attributes comprise "its distinctive attitudes, values and predispositions, and the resulting behavior of its members." Ok that's succinct.
Patterson accuses academics of willfully ignoring cultural explanations, and instead exhibiting a "relentless preference for relying on structural factors like low incomes, joblessness, poor schools and bad housing."
The problem as he sees it, is that if these structural issues adaquately explained the problem, than they would suggest an effective strategy to deal with it.
Or is the larger political nation instead ignoring the solutions? willfully ignoring anything that might cost money, of the shift of power?
And anyway, it is not just poor blacks, in any large metropolitan area, and in most rural counties, there is also an underclass of whites, honest to goodness non imigrant, home grown white trash to use the technical term. People who seem to see themselves as outside the system or working to get ahead and get a nice house in the suburbs.
Patterson identifies "Three gross misconceptions about culture explain the neglect."
"First is the pervasive idea that cultural explanations inherently blame the victim; that they focus on internal behavioral factors and, as such, hold people responsible for their poverty, rather than putting the onus on their deprived environment. (It hasn't helped that many conservatives do actually put forth this view.)"

"Second, it is often assumed that cultural explanations are wholly deterministic, leaving no room for human agency."

"Third, it is often assumed that cultural patterns cannot change."

"This too is nonsense." says Patterson, "Indeed, cultural patterns are often easier to change than the economic factors favored by policy analysts."

In fact Patterson sees young black men ensnared in a "Dionysian trap": a hip-hop sub-culture that provides powerful incentives and is tightly connected to mainstream pop culture: "Hip-hop, professional basketball and homeboy fashions are as American as cherry pie."



A Poverty of the Mind - New York Times