As an urban educator, exploring the origins of the Black and Mexican communities in America may lead to a better understanding of how to maximize student learning through knowledge of the historical background of each group.
In Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality, Joel Spring (2010) advises that the deculturalization and Americanization of enslaved Africans is a complex history to chart "because they originated from a variety of language groups and cultures within Africa" (p. 43). Additionally, the treatment of these enslaved workers differed from region to region, decade to decade, and century to century. Ronald Takaki, in his introduction to A Different Mirror (2008), declares that throughout U.S. history, "African Americans have been the central minority" (p. 7). The first enslaved Africans, arriving at Jamestown in 1618, came from established European trading areas along the west coast of Africa. These Africans were familiar with European languages and customs. Takaki found that the first arrivals were not actually slaves, "rather, like most of the white laborers, they were probably indentured servants" (p. 52). But by 1700, the origins of the slave population had significantly changed. As a result of the increased demand caused by the flourishing southern plantation system, slave traders began to import villagers from the interior areas of Africa. These Africans did not share a common language or culture. They had no contact with Europeans prior to being enslaved (Spring, p.45). Spring articulates the psychologically devastating experience of those who survived the two-month Middle Passage: "wrenched out of their villages, separated from their families, marched to the African coast in shackles, forced into the dark holds of sailing ships, and then sold to some unknown Anglo-American in a country that had little resemblance to their homelands" (p. 45). Deculturalization was used to render enslaved Africans dependent on the slaveholder. After purchasing enslaved Africans, Spring writes, the plantation owner would immediately "take away their identities by giving them new names" (p.51). Consumed by fear of insurrection, slaveholders set about to deny enslaved Africans any form of personal expression, cultural connection or education.

The processes of deculturalization and cultural transformation experienced by Mexican Americans differ from those experienced by African Americans, but the historical patterns are no less complex. Discrimination toward Mexicans and Americans of Mexican heritage developed in two stages. First, in the treatment of those who remained on their land following the U.S. conquest, and then, in the early twentieth century when political and economic conditions in the two countries compelled many Mexicans to seek residence in the U.S. (Spring, p.91). Ronald Takaki's research revealed that during the 1820s Americans began crossing over the Mexican border. "Many of them were slaveholders from the South," he writes, "in search of new lands for cotton cultivation" (p. 156). Attitudes founded on an ideology of ethnic, religious, and cultural superiority provided motivation for the U.S. to begin annexing Mexican land. Within this ideology, Mexican Mestizos were classified as a sub-standard racial mixture. In 1830 the Mexican government prohibited further American immigration and declared slavery illegal (Takaki, p. 156). The culture clash continued until finally, in May of 1846, the U. S. Congress declared war on Mexico. The Mexican-American War -- which Spring emphasizes was, among other things, a race war -- ended in May 1848 with ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Racialist ideation, the doctrine of "manifest destiny," and the conception Takaki identifies as "a belief in American Anglo-Saxon superiority" were the bases for the Mexican-American war and together would continue to be the root of hostilities between the neighboring nations for a hundred years (p. 164). The Mexican American heritage, according to Spring, "became segregated schools, housing, and discrimination in employment" (p.91).

Exported away from their homeland as members of intact Mexican communities or as U.S. immigrants who had assimilated into existing Hispanic communities, Mexican Americans had a far different historical experience than the descendants of those imported to America through the African holocaust. The centuries of determined deculturalization that accompanied the evil of slavery have almost completely obscured the diverse histories represented by the American descendants of enslaved African peoples. Takaki speaks of "the hidden origins of slavery." He then establishes that, "while freighted with racial significance," the institution of slavery was actually conditioned by economics and "class conflicts within White society" (p. 7). The driver was economics, not ethnicity. In contrast, much of the discrimination and domination of Mestizos and Mexican Americans stemmed from Anglo American obsessions with race and racial superiority. Spring is clear in his remarks about this hidden horror of Mexican American history. U.S. citizens remain ignorant of the brutal tactics used to acquire Mexican lands, Spring notes, and are generally unaware of the ethnocentricity and bigotry underpinning the complex history of the Mexican-American war (p. 87).

Linking Learners to History

Takaki declares that currently, "one-third of the American people do not trace their ancestries to Europe; in California, minorities have become the majority" (5). This is supported by U.S. Census Bureau statistics which project that in 40 years, America's so-called "minorities" will outnumber Whites. All non-White populations, including the African American community, will increase -- but the fastest growing group will be Hispanic / Latino (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). By the middle of this century, government projections show that of the 60 percent of children in the U.S. that will come from non-White populations, roughly 40 percent of them will classify as Hispanic / Latino. Minnesota will see similar increases, with the Mexican American population more than doubling in the next 25 years. Most of these population increases are expected to take place within the Twin Cities metropolitan area (MN State Demographic Center, 2011).

The African American and Mexican American communities both have long histories as targets of bigotry, abuse and discrimination. It is necessary for urban educators to recognize how seemingly distant historic happenings still have a day-to-day effect on many families. Appreciating distinctions and variances in the two histories provides the start of a framework for approaching cultural diversity in the classroom:

A respect-filled learning environment that expands students' capacity to appreciate diversity and perceive self in a multicultural perspective
Instructional planning that accounts for multiple literacies and supports linguistic diversity



"Pobre Mexico! Tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos!"
-- attributed to Mexican President, General Porfirio Diaz

Exploring the historic challenges of the African American and Mexican American communities may provide the urban educator a better understanding of how to be effective in the multicultural classroom through review of the cultural and social experiences of the two communities of color.

African Americans -- suddenly and systematically separated from family, home, language, religion and heritage -- had to devise completely new modes of connection and communication (Spring, p.52). Black communities developed linguistic and cultural traditions which reflected means and methods of interacting with power and powerlessness. By 1800, the plantation system had expanded throughout the South. Millions of African Americans were being held as slaves. The North was free, "for the northern states had abolished slavery after the American Revolution," Takaki clarifies, but African Americans were not free from bigotry and institutionalized discrimination. Takaki records that Black Americans were the target of "virulent racism . . . everywhere in the North, Blacks experienced discrimination and segregation" (p. 102). Throughout the South, he says, enslaved African Americans "constituted the essential labor force in Southern agriculture for tobacco, hemp, rice, sugar and especially cotton cultivation." Blacks in post-Civil War America were denied the right to become U. S. citizens and were faced with restrictions on most other basic rights. Under the "separate but equal" scheme, states erected laws to limit the right of African Americans to vote, bring a law suit, use public facilities, marry and even read books. Literacy was a punishable crime for enslaved Africans in several parts of the South (p.53). By the end of the nineteenth century, many Blacks were living in conditions close to slavery. "The possibility of progress for Blacks was distressingly remote," writes Takaki. "Racial borders had been reinforced by class and caste" (p. 130). Full citizenship for African Americans would not be achieved until the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s.

Researcher Spring explains that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ceded Mexican territory to the United States that encompassed major parts of the future states of California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Texas (p. 87). Mexican leaders insisted the treaty specify that Mexicans living in ceded territory were to immediately be recognized as full U.S. citizens (Takaki, p. 164). However, denial of citizenship and voting rights, as well as segregation in accommodations and schooling were the norm for Mexican Americans throughout the Southwest following the Mexican-American war. The deculturalization and segregation of Mexican Americans again became pronounced during the great immigration period of the early twentieth century. During this period, according to Ronald Takaki, most Mexican Americans were agricultural laborers, often working under miserable conditions (p 165). Students of Mexican heritage were routinely prohibited from speaking Spanish. "Educators argued that learning English was essential to assimilation and the creation of a unified nation" says Spring (p. 97). It was widely assumed that, once forced to give up their language, Mexican American citizens would abandon their ethnic heritage. The Mexican American fight for citizenship rights, explains Spring, is exemplified by policies of Mexican "extermination and ejection" which resulted in the removal of entire communities. "The U.S. government and state governments in the 1930s ignored citizenship rights and deported about 400,000 Mexican Americans back to Mexico," says Spring. "Many of those deported were officially native-born citizens" (p. 89).

Takaki establishes that Blacks fought for survival and sanity, having suddenly become strangers in a strange place; Mexicans battled exclusion and extermination, upon finding themselves "foreigners in their native land" (p 165). Spring sees that enslaved Africans resisted deculturalization by recreating themselves in the New World, while Mexican Americans resisted it by finding ways to preserve and protect the world they knew.

Linking Learners to Social Background

Spring points to statistics which indicate a continuing "persistence of income inequality" for Black and Mexican Americans (p. 149). Despite the legal demise of segregation, Blacks and Hispanics are still largely educated in ethnically segregated public schools. Segregation by family income also persists (p. 152). The deculturalizing and demonizing of these two minority groups, declares Spring, produced "a legacy of family instability, low educational achievement, living in low-income neighborhoods, and low family incomes that continue to fuel educational and income inequalities" (p. 152). A comprehensive study on the integration of Mexican Americans conducted by UCLA sociologists Telles and Ortiz shows that, unlike the descendants of European immigrants to the United States, "Mexican Americans have not fully integrated by the third and fourth generation" (Telles & Ortiz, 2008). The sociologists found that -- even into the fourth generation -- most Mexican Americans continue to live in majority Hispanic neighborhoods, consider their ethnicity to be very important, and identify as "Mexican" or "Mexican American," with only about ten percent identifying as "American." Telles and Ortiz reported "economic status improved for Mexican Americans from the first to second generation but earnings, occupational status and homeownership were still alarmingly low for later generations" due to low levels of schooling (2008). The Minnesota Minority Education Partnership has examined the opportunity gap that exists between European Americans and Black and Mexican Americans in Minnesota's metropolitan areas (Minnesota Minority Education Partnership [MMEP], 2009). The MMEP contends that for many students of color, "lagging achievement evidenced as early as fourth grade appears to be a powerful predictor of rates of high school and college graduation, as well as lifetime earnings" (MMEP, 2009). High school graduation statistics, detailed by Minnesota's Department of Education, present a clear indicator of the state's opportunity gap. In 2009, Minnesota's graduation rate for White students was 82%. For Blacks the rate was 44%. Though statistics for Mexican Americans are not specifically charted by the state, the overall graduation rate for Hispanic students was 45% (Minnesota Department of Education, 2011).

To be effective, educators in the diverse urban classroom need to be knowledgeable and thoughtful about the ever-changing universe of issues important to various social groups, so that culture -- the engine of cognition -- may be ignited. In order to command a culturally responsive classroom, educators must learn to appreciate the values and views that have shaped the outlook of the African American and Mexican American communities because each group has its own experience, and because pedagogical research indicates that culture prompts cognition. To engage urban learners, teachers must link instructional content and strategies directly to the real lives of students, so an instructional framework for Black and Hispanic Urban learners should include:

Curriculum content that avoids bias and reflects the contributions of all cultures
Consistent incorporation of culturally relevant classroom materials

"There is in this world no such force as the force of a person determined to rise. The human soul cannot be permanently chained."
-- Frederick Douglass

The educator of diverse urban learners can effectively craft a culturally responsive classroom and increase student achievement through an understanding of African American and Mexican American education history.

"During and immediately after the Civil War," Spring writes, "former slaves took the initiative in establishing schools" (p 57). Private tutoring and schooling provided by abolitionist societies and religious groups, though often designed to preach not teach, also had an important part in the advancement of African American education throughout the 1800s. As African American common schools began to appear in the early nineteenth century, Spring notes that Blacks faced repeated attempts to limit their educational opportunities "through underfunding of their schools or by educational segregation" (p. 44). Planters forcefully objected to the idea of education for Black children since it threatened the steady supply of agricultural laborers. All U.S. schools, regardless of whether they were located in the South or the North, were "racially" segregated. Segregation resulted in unequal school funding and educational opportunities for African Americans. Despite legal challenges mounted by the NAACP and other groups, public schools continued to be segregated throughout the nineteenth century. They would remain so until 1954. The official end of segregation, and other legal battles finally won through the Civil Rights movement, prompted widespread feelings of ethnic pride and empowerment in African American community (Takaki, p. 389).

The inequities of segregation that placed limitations on Black education imposed comparable restrictions on the schooling opportunities of Mexican Americans. While most Southwestern farmers and their political representatives maintained that Mexican American children were suited for farm work -- not school work -- there was also a contingent of public officials who proposed compulsory education as a way to "Americanize" Hispanic children (Spring, p. 96). For a majority of Mexican American youth growing up in the late 1800s, there simply was no opportunity to attend school. Those who were able to go to school were very often subjected to a curriculum devised to acculturate them and eradicate ties to their native language and customs. In 1918, the Texas legislature enacted laws requiring instructors to use English in public schools. Similar statutes were passed in other states. The California Bureau of Instruction mandated that school personnel use only English in the conduct of school business (Spring, p. 94). Attempting to circumvent the poorly funded segregated public schools, some Mexican American families sent their children to Catholic and private schools. In 1929, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was formed. LULAC set out to end school segregation and anti-Mexican bias in school textbooks. Following World War II, Mexican American groups such as the American GI Forum, joined by other Hispanic / Latino civil rights groups, began the push for bilingual school programs, culturally sensitive educators, and courses in Hispanic history, literature and languages.

Linking Learners to Education History

In a broad analysis, the African American struggle for recognition and equality centered on gaining freedom from the horrors of human bondage, hysteria, hatred and greed. Struggles in the Mexican American community often involved the "Melting Pot" issues of forced cultural-linguistic assimilation and ethnocide. The research from Takaki and Spring detailing these major differences -- as well as other, more subtle distinctions between the two groups -- compels the educator of diverse urban learners to value the limitless variety of cultural knowledge students bring to school.

Since 1990, the number of children of immigrants in Minnesota has swelled more than 200 percent according to a recent report by the Urban Institute (Urban Institute, 2010). English learner (EL) communities have grown so quickly that Twin Cities metropolitan school districts are just beginning to catch up. Currently, Minnesota's Black and Hispanic students are roughly two to three years of learning behind White students of the same age. While about a quarter of the White students in the Twin Cities area test below expected grade level proficiency, that percentage is more than doubled for Black and Mexican American learners. Compared to the nation as a whole, Minnesota has one of the highest gaps between students of color and White students -- and between students of different income levels (MN Meeting Series on Education, 2009). On average, the number of out-of-school suspensions given to male students of color in Minnesota is equivalent to about seventeen percent. Less than four percent of the state's White male students receive out-of-school suspensions. Students of color are admitted to district Gifted/Talented programs at less than half the rate of Whites, and nearly three times as many were classified as cognitively impaired (U. S. Department of Education, 2011). As for diversity in the teacher workforce, information gathered from a 2009 survey by the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership shows that only 3.3 percent of Minnesota teachers are racial or ethnic minorities. Three-fourths of the learners in Minneapolis and St. Paul schools are students of color or Native Americans, but just 16 percent of teachers are. The state's K-12 school administrators are also primarily White (93 percent). Administrators of color, or who identify as American Indian, comprise just seven percent of the school administrators in Minnesota (MMEP, 2009).

Spring (p. 106) provides a deculturalization list, advising that the process has historically involved one or more of the following educational methods: (1) Segregation and isolation; (2) Forced change of language; (3) Curriculum content that reflects culture of dominant group; (4) Textbooks that reflect culture of dominant group; (5) Denial of cultural and religious expression by dominated groups; (6) Use of teachers from dominant group. The list is useful to this analysis in two ways. First, it serves as a point of comparison. African American education has been marked by isolation and denial of culture. The main methods used to mis-educate Mexican Americans would include forced change of language and mono-cultural instructional materials. Considering the ultimate failure of these educational methods to deculturize communities of color, Spring's list is also instructive as a model of what does not work in the urban classroom. Thus, when the items are analyzed as their opposites, Spring's deculturalization list completes a six-component framework for culturally responding to African American and Mexican American urban learners:

A respect-filled learning environment where all teachers and subjects "reflect a multicultural perspective" (Spring p. 133)

Instructional planning that accounts for multiple literacies and supports linguistic diversity

Curriculum content that avoids bias and reflects the contributions of all cultures

Consistent incorporation of culturally relevant classroom materials

Learning strategies that activate and celebrate cultural knowledge

diverse, culturally competent educators and "strong role models" (Spring p. 133)


"The promise of the twenty-first century is the promise of the changing colors of the American people. Demography is redefining who is an American. The time has come for us to embrace our varied selves. A new America is approaching, a society where diversity is destiny."
-- Ronald Takaki