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Our Common Culture: A Poisonous

DonøIdo Macedo

Reporter: Mr. Ghandi, what do you think of modern civilization?

Ghandi: That would be a good idea.

What All Americans Need to Know

our "common cultural" background knowledge. \¡Vhat Hirsch fails to recognize is that h-is treatment of r than an- thropological and political. . . . past, and its essence is that it provides th ierent for

"dismisses the notion that culture has any determinate relation to the politics an on- history, mean- one's te 988, p.

What is more pernicious than Hirsch's fossilized encyclopedia of "our common cultural" background knowledge is his seiective omis-

777 118 Donaldo Macedo - Our Common Culture 719 sion of cultural facts that all Americans also need to know but are pre- vented from knowing. This is part of the ongoing "poisonous peda- gory" designed "to irnpart . . . from the beginning false information and beliefs that have been passed on from generation to generation and dutifully accepted by the young even though they are not only un- proved but are demonstrably false" (Miller, 7990, p.54). According to Alice Miller, to ensure that the received belief and value system is con- tinually reproduced, the recipients "shall never be aware for their own Obedience is ion is actually good" of the mechanisms inherent in "poisonous pedagogy," which nothing other than learning recognized involve "layíng traps, lying, duplicity, subterfuge, manipulation, principle thut p"r- sons of high € ¡¡¡hole nations must learnthe 'scare' tactics, withdrawal of love, isolation, distrust, humiliation . ' - art of governance by way of fust learning obedience. eui nescit obedire, and coercion even to the point of torture" (ibid.). scorn, ridicule, t obedience teaches a person to be Although Alice Miller's work focuses mostly on child-rearing prac- the fi¡st quality of a ruler. Thus, tices, the mechanisms of poisonous pedagogy also i¡form our educa- a result of one's first labors with tion and even our governrnent. We do not have to look further than childrerç the chief goal of one's further labors must be obedience. (Miller, our newspaper headlines to identify explicit mechanisms of poisonous 1990, pp.72-13) pedagogy in the behavior of our politicians. For instance, in an investi- gation of corrupt politicians in the Massachusetts legislature, the Bos- obedience, however is not easily institled in individuars. It requires ton Globe (May 27,1993) concluded that "the Beacon Hill system often a sophisticated implementation of the ingredients of poisonous peda- seems designed to obfuscate the truth, hinder public scrutiny and con- gogy, which include the use of scare tactics, lies, manipulation, and ceal the identity of special interests and their agents." The prevalent other means designed to get individuals to submit to tñe rule of law cul- lying and concealment of truth are part and parcel of our political and to accept what has been presented as sacred. All this must take ture and are best measured by the public's resignation to such lies. place in a carefully crafted manner so that the individual "won't notice that Anyone who followed the Iran--contra investigation can attest and will therefore not be able" to expose the lies. Hitler was fully and Bush were less than truthful to the public, and Presidents Reagan aware of this fact: "rt aiso gives us a very special, secret pleasure to see the they were no less deceitful about U.S. complicity in concealing how unaware the people around us are of what is really happening to against committed by truth about the carnage and crimes humanity them" (quoted in Miller, 7990, p.63). I would argue that many of óur El Mozote in 1981, the vi- the El Salvadoran army in the massacre of own educators and politicians enjoy a "very special special, seciet plea- murder four cious murders of six ]esuit priests, and the rape and of sure" in viewing how anesthetized we have become and how unaware American churchwomen. Yet, public resignation to such lies is so com- we are of what is really happening to us. (lll4arch 18, plete that there was little uproar when tlne Boston Globe obedience imposed through lies is accomplished not only through a US War." The same 1993) headtined, "The Truth Comes on Dirty received but false cultural information but also through the omission deceit by our public officials was evident public resignation to lies and of cultural facts, such as the horrendous crimes that the westem heri- Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger, who was accused when President tage committed against humanity in order to prevent the possibility of affair. The same public resigna- of lying to Congress in the lran--contra keeping dangerous memories alive. It is, then, not accidental that Hir- tion allows the former secretary of state, Alexander M. Haig to not Jr., sch's "shopping mall" (Gannaway, 1994) cultural literacy gives rise to be accountable for his irresponsible assertion that the four church- a type of education based on the accumulation of selected cultural facts and murdered by the El Salvadoran army in 1980 may women raped that are disconnected from the sociocultural worrd that generated have been killed as they tried to run a roadblock. these facts in the first place. Educators who adhere to Hirschã perspec- The mechanisms of poisonous pedagogy are also part and parcel of tive often contribute to the fragmentation of knowledge due to their which is designed to instill obedience so as to our educational system, reductionist view of the act of knowing. The acquisiti-on of what all require students to "1) willingly do as they are told, 2) willingly refrain Americans need to know in a fossilized encyclopedic manner prevents from doing what is forbidden, and 3) accept the rules for their sake" the learner from relating the flux of informátiori ,o u, to gain à critical -IF'

Our Common Culture 721 720 Donaldo Macedo

own people who succumbed to their savage ways of life. But you still did reading of the world. This implies, obviously, the ability of leamers to not grow much com. (Ztrn, 1990, p. 18a) critically understand how Hirsch's view of "widely accepted culhrral values" often equates Westem culture with civilization, while leaving u¡noted Westem culture's role in "civilizing" the "primitive others'" To execute its civilizing tasks, Western culture resorted to barbarism so as to save the "other" cultural subjects from their prirnitive selves. Ironically, Hirsch neglects to include in his dictionary information that would show how Western culture, in the name of civilization and reli- gion, subjugated, enslaved, and plundered Africa, Asia, and the Amer- icas. If this perspective of cultural literacy allowed readers to become critical, encouraging them to apply rigorous standards of science, intel- lectual honesty, and academic truth in their inquiry, they would arrive from the Dictionøry of CuIturøI Literacy: whøt Ezsery American Needs to at a much more complex response than is allowed for in the prevailing Know (Hirsch, Kett, and Tuefil, 1988). The column on the right elabo- version of our cultural literacy. rates historical facts to fill the gap of what is omitted from the dic- Critical readers would also question why the dictionary fails to in- tionary. form American readers that "Lrdian towns and villages were attacked and bumed, their i¡habitants murdered or sold into foreign slavery" What every American needs What every American needs to know (Ziîrr,1990, p.25). These often-omitted historical facts were described to know but is prevented from knowing by William Bradford, the govemor of Plymouth Colony: "It was a feat- Goaernment of the people, by the peo- These words were not meant for ful sight to see Úrdians] thus frying in the fire and the streams of [the ple, and for the people: Words from the African Americans, since Abraham and horrible was the stink and scent ,,I blood quenching the same, Getbysburg Address of Abraham Lin- LincoLn also once declared: will thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and [the settlers] gave colrt often quoted as a definition of say, then, that I am not, nor ever have the praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them" democracy. been in favor of ringing about in any (Starurard, 1992, p.430). Critical readers would also question why way the social and political equality Hirsch's cultural literacy conveniently fails to discuss how history of white and black races. . . . I as much shows us convincingly and factually that the United States systemati- as any other man am in favor of hav- cally violated the Pledge of Allegiance f¡om the legalization of slavery, ing the superior position assigned to the white (Ztrm, the denial of women's rights, the near-genocide of Indians, to the con- race" 1990, p.1,84). temporary discriminatory practices against people who, by virtue of Indentured seraant: A person under Slaoery: Aìthough omitted from their race, ethnicity, class, or gender, are not treated with the digt ity contract to work for another person Hirsch's cultural list, slavery involved for a definite period of time, and respect called for in the pledge. If Hirsch, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., usually kidnapping Afücaru, breaking up without pay but in exchange for and others did not suffer from historical amnesia, they would include free families, and shipping Africans to the passage to a new cou¡try. During the Americas to be sold to white in our common cultural literacy the following observation: masters seventeenth century most of the white to perform forced labor under duress laborers in Maryland and Virginia and inhuman conditions, often in- If you were a colonist, you knew that your technology was superior to the came from England as indentured volving undignified and denigrating Indians'. You knew that you were civilized, and they were savages. . . . servants. jobs. Slavery was legal and protected But your superior technology proved insufficient to extract anything. The by U.S. laws until the Emancipation Indians, keeping to themselves, Iaughed at your superior methods and Proclamation, even though slavery lived from the land more abundantly and with less labor than you did. continued unabated long after the . . . And when your own people started deserting in order to live with Emancipation Proclamation. them, it was too much. . . . So you killed the Indians, tortured them, Giae me liberty or giae me death: Patrick Henry's bumed their villages, burned their com fields. It proved your superiority, words were not Words from a speech by Patrick meant for African slaves or Ame¡ican in spite of your failures. And you gave similar treatment to any of your 722 Donaldo Macedo Our Common Culture 723 Henry urging the American colonies Indians. African Americans and provided monetary rewards for dead to revolt against England. Henry American Indians continued Indians. "For every scalp or male In- spoke only a few weeks before the throughout the history of the United dian brought in . . . forty pounds. For Revolutionary War began: "Gentle- States to experience subjugation, every scalp of such female Indian or men may cry peace, peace, but there leading Malcolm X to pronounce in male I¡rdian under the age of twelve is no peace. The war is actually 1964 the following: "No, I'm not an years that shall be killed . . . twenty begun. The next gale that sweeps American. I'm one of the 22 million pounds" (Ztnn, 7990, pp. 23,a4fl . from the north will ring to our ears black people who are the victims of the clash of resounding arms. Olu Americanism. . . . One of the . . . vic- Big Stick Diplomacy : International Big-stick diplomacy characterizes breth¡en are already in the field. . . . Is tims of democracy, nothing but dis- negotiations backed by the threat of U.S. foreign policy, particularly in life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be guised hypocrisy. So, I'm not stand- force. The phrase comes from a prov- Latin America. Recent examples of purchased at the price of chains and ing here speaking to you as an erb quoted by Theodore Roosevelt, such diplomacy are the U.S. invasion slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I American, or a patriot, or a flag-sa- who said that the United States of Grenada under Ronald Reagan, the know not what course others may luter, or a flag-waver-no, not M'm should "speak softly and carry a big U.S. bombing of Libya r¡nder Ronald take, but for me, give me liberty or speaking as a victirn of this American stick-" Reagan, the U.S. invasion of Nicara- give me death!" system. And I see America through gua via a proxy, the contras, under the eyes of the victim. I don't see any Ronald Reagar¡ and the U.S. invasion American dream; I see an American of Panama under George Bush. nightmare!" (Ztu:ul,1990, p. 65). lapanese-Americans, internment: An "To the Japanese who lived on the Naoahos: A tribe of Native Ameri- "The United States is fotmded on action taken by the federal govern- West Coast of the United States, it cans, the most numerous in the the destruction of the native popula- ment in 1942, affer the air force of quickly became clear that the war United States. The Navahos have res- tion. Before Columbus the population Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and against Hitler was not accompanied ervations in the Southwest. The Na- north of the Rio Grande was maybe brought the United States into World by a spirit of racial equality. . . . One vahos were forced to move by United 12-15 million. At the tum of the cen- War II. Government officials feared congressman said, 'I am for catching States troops under Kit Carson in tury it was 200,000. The whole history that Americans of Japanese descent every |apanese in America, Alaska, 1864. They call the march, on which of the conquest of the continent from living on the west coast might coop- and Hawaii now and putting them in many died, the Long Walk. Today, the time that the saintly Pilgrims erate in an invasion of the United concentration camps. . . . Damn them! they are known for their houses, landed is the destruction of the native States by ]apan. Accordingly, over Let's get rid of them now!' Roosevelt, called hogans, made of logs and population by various means/ some- 100,000 of these residents were sent persuaded by racists in the military earth; for their work as ranchers and times just plain mass slaughter, like into relocation camps inland, many that the Japanese on the West Coast shepherds; and for their skill in pro- the Pequot Massacre by the Puritans losing their homes and jobs in the constituted a threat to the security of ducing bla¡kets and turquoise and or George Washington's destruction process. About two-thirds of those the country, signed Executive Order silver jewelry. of the Iroquois civilization right in the moved were U.S. citizens. (See Nisei.) 9066 ttr February 1942. This empow- middle of the War of Independence, Many Japanese-Americans, including ered the army, without warrants or and many later events rurming an entire army battalion, distin- indictments or hearings, to arrest through the conquest of the national guished themselves in combat in every |apanese-American on the West territory. Sometimes it was criminal World War II. Coast-1.1,000 men, women, and chil- expulsion like Jackson's expulsion of dren-to take them from their homes, the Cherokees, really hard-line to transport them to camps far in the things. Anyway, that's the history" interior, and to keep them there (Chomsky, 1988, pp. 683-84). under prison conditions. . . . Data r:n- covered in the 1980s by legal historian Plymouth Rock: The rock, in what is Plymouth rock seen through the Peter Irons showed that the army fal- now Plymouth, Massachusetts, near eyes of American Indians represents sified material in its brief to the Su- which the Mayflower, carrying the the beginning of a quasi-genocide le- preme Court. . . . The American press Pilgrims, Ianded in 1620. galized by the Massachusetts legisla- often helped to feed racism. Time ture, which promulgated a law that magazine said, 'The ordinary unrea- 124 Donaldo Macedo Our Common Culture I25

soning Jap is ignorant. Perhaps he is Here human. Nothing indicates it.' the man has got a rope around his neck and because "Ota was bom in the United States. he screams, you know, He remembered what happened in the cracker that's putting the rope the war: 'On the evening of December around his neck accuses him of being emotional. 7,1941, my father was at a wedding. You're supposed to have the rope He was dressed in a tuxedo. When around your neck and holler politely, the reception was over, the FBI agents you know. You're sup- posed were waiting. They rounded up at to watch your diction, not shout and make least a dozen wedding guests and other people-this is how you're took 'em to county jail. For a few days supposed to holler. You're supposed we didn't know what happened. We to be respectable and heard nothing. When we found out, responsible when you holler against what they are doing to my mother, my sister went to jail. . . . you" (Malcolm When my father walked through the X, speech given on January 24,7e65). door my mother was so humiliated . . . she cried. He was in prisoner's Parks, Rosa: A black seamstress Rosa Parks was not just mistreated. clothing, with a denim jacket and a from Montgomery, Alabama, who, in She was arrested and placed in jail. number on the back. The shame and 1965, refused to give up her seat to a According to her, "Well, in the first humiliation just broke her down. - . . white person, as she was legally re- place, I had been working all day on Right after that day she got very ill quired to do. Her mistreatment after the job. I was quite tired after spend- and contracted tuberculosis. She had refusing to give up her seat led to a ing a fuII day working. I handled and to be sent to a sanitarium. . . . She was boycott of the Montgomery buses by worked on clothing that white people there till she died. My father was supporters of equal rights for black wear. That didn't come in my mind, transferred to Missoula, Montana. We people. This incident was the first but this is what I wanted to know: got letters from him---

ians. The U.S. Strategic Bombing Sur- North Vietnam. American troops were namely the aggression of the Viet- vey said in its official report: 'Hiro- withdrawn 1¡.1973, and South Viet- namese, and particularly the Viet- shima and Nagasaki were chosen as narn was completely taken over by namese peasants, against the United targets because of their concentration commr-r¡ist forces in 1975. States in South Vietnam. A society of activities and population.'The The involvement of the United that can use phrases such as 'intemal dropping of the second bomb on Na- States in the war was extremely con- aggression' and can perceive the gasaki seems to have been scheduled troversial. Some supported whole- bombing of peasant villages as a de- in advance, and no one has ever been heartedly; others opposed it in mass fense of either us or our clients, that able to explain why it was dropped. demorutrations and by refusing to society has gone a long towards a Was it because this was a plutonium serve in the American armed forces kind of operative totalitarianism" bomb whereas the Hiroshima bomb (see Draft). Still others seemed to rely (Chomsky, 1988, p. 701). was a uranium bomb? Were the dead on the government to decide the best A large black marble memorial and irradiated of Nagasaki victims of course of action (see Silent Majority). contains the names of over 50,000 a scientific experiment?" (Ztrn, 1990, A large memorial (see Vietnam Me- Americans who perished in the Viet- p. a1s). morial) bearing the names of all nam War. members of the United States armed Vietnam War: A war in Southeast "The need to 'stop communism' services who died in the Vietnam War Asia, in which the United States was used to justify the invasion of is in Washingtorç D.C. fought in the 1960s and 1970s. The Vietnam and to carqr on there a full- Banana war was waged from 1954 to I975be- scale war in which over a rnillion peo- republics: A term describing As a term, banana republic also re- tween communist North Vietnam and ple died. It was used to justify the any of several small nations in Latin fers to the puppet governments in- noncommunist South Vietnam, two bombing of peasant villages, the America that have economies based stalled by the CIA to protect U.S. in- parts of what was once the French chemical poisoning of crops, the on a few agricultural crops. The term terests while the vast majority of the colony of Indochina. Vietnamese 'search and destroy missions,'the lay- "banana republic" is often used in a population live in dire poverty. The commr.¡nists attempted to take over ing waste of an entire country. GI disparaging sense; it suggests an un- United States often installs and sup- the South, both by invasion from the Charles Hutto, who participated in stable government. ports dictatorships, giving rise to po- North and by guerrilla warfare con- the massacre of Vietnamese peasants litical instability and periodic civil ducted within the South by Viet at My Lai, told army investigators: 'I wars. What follows is a partial list of Cong. Presidents Dwight D. Eisen- remember the unit's combat assault U.S. invasions of these so-called ba- hower and John F. Kennedy sent in- on My Lai. The night before the mis- nana republics to protect the interests creasing numbers of American mili- sion we had a briefing by Captain Me- of U.S. companies: tary advisors to South Vietnam in the dina. He said everything in the village c 1854, Nicaragua: U.S. invasion to late 1950s and early 1960s. Kennedy's was communist. So we shot mer¡ avenge an insult to the American min- successor, President Llmdon Johnson, women, and children' " (21rlrr.,7990, ister to Nicaragua. increased American military support p.267). . 1855, Uruguay: Landing of U.S. greatly, until half a million United President john F. Kennedy, who and European naval forces to protect States soldiers were in Vietnam. considered Vietnam "an important American interests during an at- American goals in Vietnam proved piece of real estate," comrnitted "U.S. tempted revolution in Montevideo. difficult to achieve, and the coÍunu- planes and U.S. pilots to undertake c 7954, Guatemala: A legally nists' Tet Offensive was a severe set- direct participation, not just control, elected govemment overthrown by in- back. Report of atrocities committed by in the bombing and defoliation oper- vasion forces of mercenaries trained both sides in the war disturbed many ations in South Vietnam directed by the CIA. The govemrnent that the Americans (see My lai Massacre). against the rural population, which United States overthrew was the most Evenhrally, President Richa¡d Nixon was the large majority, about 80% of democratic Guatemala had ever had. decreased American troop shength, the population. . . . Adlai Stevenson, "What was most unsettling to Ameri- and sent his secretary of Jtate, uãnry our UN ambassador at the time. re- can business interests was that A¡benz Kissinger, to negotiate a cease-fire with ferred to an'intemal aggression,' [the deposed president] had expropri- r28 Donaldo Macedo Our Common Culture 129

ated 234,000 acres of land owned by to escape political persecution. It wel- United Fruit, offering compensation comes Cuban refugees while it de- that United Frrit called 'unaccept- ports Haitian boat people. able"' (Ztrm, 7990, pP. 430-31). Third World: The nonaligned na- Third World also refers to underde- Coloníalism: The control of one na- Although the United States fought tions-rvhich are often developing veloped nations. The term is mislead- against Britain, tion by transplanted PeoPle of an- for its independence nations----of Africa, Asia, and Latin ing to the extent that we have Third other nation----often a geographically it ended up assuming the colonial America. They are in a "third" group World contexts in First World nations, distant nation that has a different cul- role in the world, seizing Cuba and of nations since they are allied with such as ghettoes, and First World re- ture and dominant racial or ethnic Puerto Rico in 1898, the Canal Zone neither the United States nor the So- alities in Third World countries. group (see Ethnicity). A classic exam- in Panama in 1903, and Hawaii in viet Union. ple of colonialism is the control of 1903, and fighting a brutal war to sub- India by Britain from the eighteenth jugate the Philippines. The United World Court: A division of the Although the World Court medi- Nations that settles legal dis- ates legal disputes among nations, century to 7947 . Control that is eco- States functions as a de facto neocolo- United it nomic and cultural, rather than politi- nialist power due to its economic and putes submitted to it by member na- has no power of execution. A classic cal, is often called Neocolonialism. cultural control of Puerto Rico and tions. The lnternational Court of Jus- example of its lack of execution many Latin American nations. The tice, also called the World Court, power involves the mining of the Nic- United States almost alwaYs sided meets in The Hague, Netherlands. araguan harbor by the United States. with the colonizers in Africa when The World Court ruled in favor of African countries began their inde- Nicaragua, but the United States arro- pendence wars. gantly dismissed the ruling.

Disenfr anchisem¿rf : Removal of the The disenfranchised often refers to Class: A group of people sharing The ruling elite aided by the intelli- franchise, or right to vote. the oppressed "minoritY" grouPs in the same social, economic, or occupa- gentsia goes to great lengths to create the United States. The dominant tional status. The term class usually mechanisms designed to per?ehrate group in the United States prefers the implies a social and economic hierar- the myth that the United States is a term disent'ranchised groups over op- chy, in which those of higher class classless society. That is why George pressed groups. With the verb disen- standing have greater status, privi- Bush, during the 1988 presidential t'ranchise, one can never identify the lege, prestige, and authority. Western campaign, berated his democratic op- subject, whereas oppressed acknowl- societies have traditionally been di- ponent by saying: "I am not going to edges an oppressor. vided into classes: the upper class or let that liberal Govemor divide this leisure class, the middle class þour- nation. . . . I think that's for European of govemment A classic example of oligarchy is El Oligarchy: A system geoisie), and the lower or working democracies or something else. It is held bY a small Salvador, supported bY the United in which power class. For Marxists, the significant isn't for the United States of America. States in a civil war that has cost that grouP. cÌasses are the bourgeoisie and the We're not going to be divided by country 70,000 lives. The United proletariat. class. . . . We are the land of big States has spent billions of dollars dreams, of big opportunities, of fair maintaining a de facto oligarchy in El play, and this attempt to divide Salvador while ignoring outrageous America by class is going to fail be- human rights violations by the ultra cause the American people realize right arrd military death squads that that we are a very special country, for were responsible for thousands of anybody given the opporhrnity can killings, including the massacre of six make it and fuIfill the American priests. ]esuit dream" (Netn York Times, October 30, Refugees: People who flee a nation, The United States adoPts a double 1988). This is the same George Bush often to escaPe punishment for their standard toward refugees. It wel- who fought for a capital gains tax cut political affiliations or for political comed anti-Sandinista refugees while for the rich while threatening to veto dissent. deporting El Salvadorans who tried a tax cut for the middle class and who l-

130 Donaldo Macedo Our Common Culture 131

put into place severe cuts designed to to promote the myth that the United dismantle social services, including States is a classless society. However, education, for the poor. It is the same it would be hard to convince students George Bush who used the benefit of in East St. Louis Senior High School the capital gains tax to buy his Maine that they enjoy class equity in this two-million-dollar estate, arguing great land of ours: "East St. Louis that his purchase "put money in the Senior High School was awash in pockets of real estate agents and con- sewage for the second time this year. tractors," thus creating jobs. George The school had to be shut became of Bush would be hard put to convince fumes and backed-up toilets. Sewage residents of East L.4., Harlem, and flowed into the basement, through East St. Louis that the purchase of his the floor, then up into the kitchen and two-million-dollar estate through tax the students' bathrooms. The backup, cuts for the rich made their poverty- we read, 'occurred in the food prepa- class conditions any better. In fact, ration areas' " (Kozol,1991, p.23). George Bush, while discouraging class struggle debate, was a principle Decløration of Independence; The fun- The Declaration of lrdependence actor in the creation of the biggest damental document establishing the was not meant for the slaves that gulf between the upper class and the United States as a nation, adopted on Thomas Jefferson owned. This is why lower cÌass. luJy , V76. The declaration was or- Frederick Douglass, a well-known ab- According to the U.S. Census Bu- dered and approved by the Continen- olitionist who, evidently is not in- reau, as analyzed by the Center on tal Congress, and written largely by cluded in Hirsch's cultural list, gave Budget and Policy Priorities, "n7988, Thomas Jefferson. It declared the the following speech on the Fourth of the richest fifth of American families Thirteen Colonies represented in the received 44 percent of the nation's July,1.852: Continental Congress independent "Fellow Citizens. Pardon me, and total family income. That's the high- from Great Britairl offered reasons allow me to asþ why am I called est percentage ever recorded for that for separation, and laid out the prin- upon to speak here today? \4/hy have segment of the population. On the ciples for which the Revolutionary I or those I represent to do with your other hand, the poorest fifth received War was fought. The signers included national independence? Are the great only 4.6 percent. That's the lowest John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, ]ohn principles of political freedom and since 1954. The second-poorest fifth Hancocþ and Jefferson. The declara- material justice, embodied in that and the middle fifth each received the tion begins (capitalization and punc- Declaration of Independence, ex- lowest ever recorded share of the na- tuation are modemized): tended to us? And am I, therefore, tion's income." The Center on Budget "\A/hen, in the course of human called upon to bring our humble of- and Policy Priorities says that "while events, it becomes necessary for one fering to the national altar, and to the average income for the bottom 20 people to dissolve the political bands confess the benefits, and to percent of households fell in the express which have cormected them with one devout gratitude for the blessings re- 1980s, income for the top 1 percent, another, and to assume, among ttre sulting from your independence to after taxes, rose722 percent, from powers of the earth, the separate and us? $203,000 to $451,000. The average sal- equal station to which the laws of na- "V\rhat to the American slave is ary of a person worth over $1 million hrre and of nature's God entitle them, your Fourth of July? I answer, a day rose from 5515,499 to 5770,587. Ttte a decent respect for the opinions of that reveals to him more than all average wage of a person who eams ma¡kind requires that they should other days of the year the gross injus- under $20,000 rose a mere $123, from declare the causes which impel them tice and cruelty to which he is the $8,528 to 98,651." to the separation. constant victim. To him vour celebra- In the face of glaring evidence of "We hold these t¡uths to be self-ev- tion is a sham; your boasied liberty an class stratification, politicians and ed- ident: that all men are created equal; unJroly license; your national great- ucators in the United States continue that they are endowed by their cre- ness, swelling vanity; your sounds of Our Common Culture 133 \32 Donaldo Macedo

wanted to make Vietnam a communist country. The peopÌe of Vietnam ator with certain unalienable rights; rejoicing are emPty and heartless; just wanted freedom. - . . The North Vietnam army fought a secret war. that among these are life, liberty, and your denunciation of tyrants, brass- They hid and ambushed the Americans. Women and children helped the pursuit of happiness; that, to se- fronted impotence; your shouts of lib- fight against the Americans. . . . Thousands of American soldiers dieá in cure these rights, govemments are in- erty and equality, hollow mockery Vietnam. Many Americans were against the war. (Fields, 1987, p.IZS) stituted among men, deriving their your Prayers and hymns, your ser- powers from the consent of the gov- mons and thanks-givings, with all \zvhat the above emed; that whenever any form of your religious parade and solemnity, text clearly demonstrates is how history is distorted government becomes destructive of are to him more bombast, fraud, de- not only by the presentation of false information but also by the omis- these ends, it is the right of the people ception, impiety, and hypocrisy- sion of important facts that serve as a counterpoint of reference. For to alter or to abolish it, and to insti- with a thin veil to cover up which example, in the rewriting of the Viebram War, Fields fails to account tute one government, laying its foun- would disgrace a nation of savages. for the over one million Viehtamese who died in the war, not to men- dations on such principles, and ana- There is no nation of the earth guilty tion the systematic killing of the elderly, women, and children, as evi- of practices more shocking and lyzing its powers in such forms as to denced in the My Lai massacre. Similar massacres were routine, as re- them shall seem most likely to effect bloody than are the people of these ca_lled by Sergeant James Daley: "'When you come into an enemy their safety and happiness." United States at this very hour. Go village,'we were told [by training instructors in the United Statesj, The day of the adoption of the Dec- where you may, search where you 'you come in opening fire. You kill everything that's living-women, laration of Independence iS now com- will, roam through all the monarchies children, and animals' " (Gibson, 7988, p. 146). Daley's account proves memorated as the Fourth of July, or and despotisms of the Old World, that the My massacre Independence Day. travel through South America, search Lai was not an isolated incident. In fact, Shad Meshad, a out every abuse and when You have psychologist who served in Vietnam, describes what he found the last, lay your facts bY the heard from soldiers: "They'd been on sweeps of villages, with orders side of the everyday practices of this to leaving nothing living, not even chickens and [water] buffaloes. nation, and you will saY with me that, WelI, what the fuck did that mean, following orders like that? Wasn,t for revolting barbarity and shameless it Lieutenant Calley who created the stir in the first place? They were without a hypocrisy, America reigns doing a Calley every day" (Gibson, 1988, p. 158). rival" (Ztrn, 1990, p. 17 8). The barbarism of our western heritage civilization training proved to be lethal for the Vietnamese. Jeffrey \Â/hitmore, a marine, deicribes The juxtaposition of the texts above points to a pedagogy that en- another graphic slaughter: ables readers to link the flux of information in order to gain a more of realify. Lrstead of just consuming Hirsch's cultural I just happened to be standing alongside the officer when the radioman list as facts, readers can rely on other Points of reference so as to be able said, "Looþ Sir, we got children rounded up. What do you want us to do to think more critically, thus recognizing the falsehoods embedded in with them?" The guy says, "Goddamn it, Marine, you know what to do the various created by the dominant class. By and large, with them: kill the bastards. If you ain't got the goddamn balls to kill dominant education utilizes poisonous pedagogy mechanisms to un- them, Marine, I'll come down and kill the mother-fuckers myself.,, The Marine said, "Yes, Sir" and hung dermine independent thought, a prerequisite for the "manufacture of up the phone. About two or three min- utes later I heard babies crying. I heard children crying their fucking consent." It is only through a that manufactures consent that Pedagogy lungs out. (Gibson, 1988, p.147) a society tolerates gross distortion of realities and the rewriting of his- tory as exemplified inThe History of the United Støtes, by Robert J. Although the vicious acts of perpetuated against innocent Fields, which is used as a social sciences text in some of Boston's public vietnamese women and children by our GIs are documented, no his- schools: tory books in school expose students to our crimes against humanity. Thus, it is not surprising that cultural legionnaires such as Hirsch near It is thousands of miles from the Vietnam is a small country China. choose to selectively monumentalize certain aspects of our western United States. Vietnam is on the other "side" of the world. But, in the heritage while neglecting to report on heinous crimes that westem civ- 7960's, it hurt our country badly. . . . The Vietnamese people fought for ilization has committed throughout its history. A more honest account their freedom. Communists took advantage of the fight. Communists Y

734 Donaldo Macedo Our Common Culture 135 of our Westem cultural heritage would not only monumentalize the on the forehead and blowing his skull off. There was a brief applause, great deeds museums and great books but also look at Westem civi- in and then a couple of the soldiers walked over to get a crose glilpse of lization through a magnifying mirror so we could see the grotesque the victim. As I recall the atrocious incident, I can still hear thð noise the and barbaric images of the Western cultural heritage. L:r other words, explosion made upon impact. My own dehumanized condition at the historical truth and academic and intellectual honesty would demand time allowed me to witness cold-blooded murder. There was no evidence that for each museum of fine arts we build in a given city, we should to suggest the man in the fierd was part of any particurar group consid- also build a museum of slavery, with graphic accounts of the dehuman- ered enemy. other violations ization of African Americans, when entire families were split and sold consisted of raping women of all ages. This was a most to the highest bidder on the block, and with pictures of lynchings. For each museum of science built in a given city, we should also build a museum of the quasi-genocide of American Indians, their enslavement and the raping, and the expropriation of their land. We should also build a Vietnam museum alongside the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in which graphic accounts of rape and killing of Vieûramese women by Westem heritage trained GI's would be described:

The girls were unconscious at that point [after repeated rapes]. IÂ/hen they finished raping them, three of the GIs took hand flares and shoved them in the girl's vaginas. . . . No one to hold them down any longer. The girls were bleeding from their mouths, noses, faces, and vaginas. Then they struck the exterior portion of the flares and they exploded inside the girls. Their stomachs started bloating up, and then they exploded. The stom- achs exploded, and their intestines were just hanging out of thei¡ bodies. The (Gibsorç 1988, pp. 202-3) vietnam museum would also show reenactments of the mass

Although I had read a great deal about American GI atrocities in Vietnam, I was revulsed when reading the above, and I immediately called a friend of mine who served in Vieb:ram to certify if, in fact, such crimes had occurred. My friend, Herman Garcia, who is now a profes- sor at the University of New Mexico at Las Cruces, recounted his expe- rience in Vietnam in the following note:

The war in Vietnam would be better characterized as "An Account of the Millions of Isolated Incidents of American-Comrnitted Atrocities of the War." As a Chicano and a member of an oppressed cultural and linguistic minority group in the United States, I had no political or ideological knowledge of my role in the war at the age of 19, although I intuitively knew something felt wrong. I just never had a language for expressing the feelings and intuitions I carried. One of the most vivid and horrendous accounts that I have had to live with all these years was the day a soldier in my infantry unit target-prac- ticed on a live man in an open field. We had just swept through a couple of villages in the province of Tay Ninh, not too far from a field firebase from where we patrolled daily. The young soldier aimed his M-79 gre- nade launcher at the older man in the open field and fired it, hitting him I

136 Donaldo Macedo Our Common Culture 737 These museums of crimes against humanity also would "remind us Chomsky, Noam. 1988. Language and politics. Translated by C. p Otero. New that when we embrace the Other, we not only meet ourselves, we em- York: Black Rose. brace the marginal images that the modem world, optimistic and pro- Fields, Robert |. 7987. The History of the Llnited states. vol. 2. New Jersey: AÍuna- gressive as it has been, has shu¡ned and has paid a price for forget- nour Corp, Book-Lab. ting" (Fuentes,1992, p. all). Fuentes, Carlos. 7992. "The Mirror of the Other.', Nation. March 30. These museums would perhaps prevent the modem world from ig- noring the carnage and mass rape of women, including children as young as five years of age, in Bosnia. These museums could also serve to remind us that when we dehumanize the Other, we also dehuman- ize ourselves, as a Vietnam veteran succinctly points out: "\Alhen we Miller, Alice. 1990. For Your Own Good. New york: Noonday. came back after the mine sweep he old Vietnamese man about [an Starmard, E. D. 1992. "Genocide in the Americ as.,, Natíon,'October 19. relatives and eighty years old] was outside his hootch. And all his Zi¡ur, Howard. 1990. A People's History ot' the united sfafes. New york: Harper friends were sitbing around and crying and shit. And we laughed. And Pererrnial. human beings don't do things like that. But we stayed there and we fucking laughed until he died. So it turns you into some sort of fucking animal" (Gibson, 1988, p.204). The museums,Iike Goya's "blackpaint- ings" (Fuentes,7992, p. ll) would serve as a constant reminder that we should always be vigilant in order to avoid complacency and the social construction of not seeing. Perhaps, Arthur ScNesinger Jr. and E. D. Hirsch, among other Western cultural legionnaires, can leam a les- son from Carlos Fuentes'insightful cornments. If these critics honestly reflect on Fuentes' insights, they will come to the realization that the real issue is not Western culture versus multiculturalism. The funda- mental issue is the recognition of the humanity in us and in others:

The art of Spain and Spanish America is a constant reminder of the cru- elty that we can exercise on our fellow human beings. But like alÌ tragic art, it asks us first to take a hard look at the consequences of our actions, and to respect the passage of time so that we can transform our experi- ence into knowledge. Acting on knowledge, we can have hope that this time we shall prevail. We will be able to embrace the Other, enlarging our human possibility. People and their cultures perish in isolation, but they are born or rebom in contact with other men and women, with men and women of another culture, another creed, another race. If we do not recognize our humanity in others, we shall not recognize it in ourselves. (Fuentes, 1988, p. 411)

References

Aronowitz, Stanley, and Henry A. Giroux. 1988. "Schooling, Culture, and Lit- eracy in the Age of Broken Dreams: A Review of Bloom andF{ttsc},:.." Har- aardEducational Reuieu 58: 185.