Edited by Laura I. Rendon and Richard O. Hope, Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, San Francisco, CA 1996. 490 pp. $34.95
Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia described the debate on the Colorado gay rights case as part of a "kulturkampf," a German word meaning culture war. The term dates to the 1870s when Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck used the concept to eradicate Catholic influence in German society, using "government to enforce ideas of a German identity; a German way of thinking, a German culture, a more German Germany."
Less than a century later, Adolf Hitler embraced the concept and identified a new target, German Jews. In 1992 the concept was given broad exposure in America in a speech by Pat Buchanan at the Republican National Convention. Buchanan issued a clarion call to the soldiers of the religious and far right to engage in a cultural war ... to take back our cities, to take back our culture, to take back our country.
This was a veiled call to America to reject all individuals ethnically different, socioeconomically different and culturally different. It was a call for a social war on diversity. it was a call to return to a time of intolerance and inequality -- to return to a past which is impossible if we are to move into the future as an intact, productive and secure nation.
Laura I. Rendon and Richard 0. Hope have compiled a collection of essays in "Educating a New Majority" that not only illustrate how America has changed, but offer potent strategies for addressing that change within the educational system.
The authors make the point that school systems must become adept at educating a diverse America. Developing and making use of all our human resources is critical if we are to survive as a nation. The New Majority must be inclusive of all groups which comprise the fabric of America. To do less is to fall prey to the venomous proponents of "kulturkampf," which can only lead to social unrest and economic decay. The proper investment and development of all segments of society represents an investment in our human capital and, laying morality aside, is in everyone's economic best interest.
