The trouble with culture:

Abstract

Although the concept of ‘culture’ was once invoked by anthropologists for progressive social purposes, today it is often used to justify racial inequalities. Using theories and methods of critical discourse analysis, this paper examines how such everyday racism is manifest in the explanation offered by ‘Katherine,’ a White middle-class American, of the unequal socioeconomic achievements attained by her own family of origin and by that of her Latino, working-class husband. By basing her explanation on presumed ‘cultural differences’ between European and Latino immigrants, Katherine implicitly denies the existence of race and class barriers impeding poor people of color, and makes it their obligation to renounce their old cultural values and embrace new ones. Yet elsewhere in her discourse Katherine implicitly acknowledges such barriers. The discrepancy between these competing cultural models can be resolved by construing cultures not as timeless entities that determine people's actions, but as historically based in unequal power relations among ethnic groups. By describing the connections between Katherine's discourse and discourses that circulate in more influential, public venues, we seek to encourage speakers, writers, and audiences of all ranks to think more critically about the political implications of ‘culture’ as used by themselves and others.

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