Author Tara J. Yosso , outlines the definition of racism in her book, Critical Race Counterstories Along the Chicana/Chicano Educational Pipeline. Yosso begins her book by defining racism as, “a socially constructed category, created to differentiate groups primarily based on skin color, phenotype, ethnicity, and culture for the purpose of showing superiority… of one group over another” (Yosso, 5). Yosso’s definition of racism is meaningful when explaining the phenomena of Chicanos being marginalized out of the school system. THESIS: Due to the long history of racism in this country to which it was founded upon, other scholars such as Yosso aim to identify the conditions that bring Chicano’s to be pushed out of the educational system, effects
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There is a constructed myth about Chicano families not valuing education. Richard R. Valencia and Mary S. Black attribute this myth to “deficit thinking” theory (Valencia & Black, 83). Deficit thinking is based on pseudoscience, and applied to Mexican-american families of a low-socioeconomic status (SES), for a student’s degree of academic success. Deficit thinking, looks at an individual's culture as the source of their school failure, rather than pointing out the educational system itself as the factor that marginalizes Chicano’s students. Examples of deficit thinking are found among three types of literature which individually looks at the opinions of it’s creators in expressing their belief Chicano family's structure is the factor for under representation in Chicano educational success. First, scholar’s Master’s Thesis and scholarly literature base their conclusion on stereotypes of Mexicans. Valencia explains that these types of scholarly literature target Chicano’s family characteristics for being “culturally deprived”( Valencia & Black, 85). A family is considered culturally deprived when compared to the status quo of a White family. This narrative examines routines of White families, such as them and rewarding their student as an incentive to excel in their academics, and if the Mexican-American family is not following that norm they are failing as parents because they are not making education a goal. “At risk” literature is another that asserts family characteristics causing low academic achievement. In Valencia’s article, she references Lubeck and Garrett, two scholars who use parents that are “drop-outs” as the source for not knowing how to prepare their student for school. Finally, other narratives have used statistics when measuring Chicano families value on education. Sowell (1981) aimed to use results
There is a constructed myth about Chicano families not valuing education. Richard R. Valencia and Mary S. Black attribute this myth to “deficit thinking” theory (Valencia & Black, 83). Deficit thinking is based on pseudoscience, and applied to Mexican-american families of a low-socioeconomic status (SES), for a student’s degree of academic success. Deficit thinking, looks at an individual's culture as the source of their school failure, rather than pointing out the educational system itself as the factor that marginalizes Chicano’s students. Examples of deficit thinking are found among three types of literature which individually looks at the opinions of it’s creators in expressing their belief Chicano family's structure is the factor for under representation in Chicano educational success. First, scholar’s Master’s Thesis and scholarly literature base their conclusion on stereotypes of Mexicans. Valencia explains that these types of scholarly literature target Chicano’s family characteristics for being “culturally deprived”( Valencia & Black, 85). A family is considered culturally deprived when compared to the status quo of a White family. This narrative examines routines of White families, such as them and rewarding their student as an incentive to excel in their academics, and if the Mexican-American family is not following that norm they are failing as parents because they are not making education a goal. “At risk” literature is another that asserts family characteristics causing low academic achievement. In Valencia’s article, she references Lubeck and Garrett, two scholars who use parents that are “drop-outs” as the source for not knowing how to prepare their student for school. Finally, other narratives have used statistics when measuring Chicano families value on education. Sowell (1981) aimed to use results