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of meritocracy and (2) pathologizing cultural/communication styles of
marginalized groups. Both take a person - or group - focused approach
to explaining the poor academic performance of marginalized groups. The
explanations can range from genetic speculations that biology determines
intelligence and abilities (math/science capabilities are defi cient in women)
to factors associated with incompatible group characteristics and values.
Educators and especially teachers often hold both conscious and unconscious
stereotypes or preconceived notions that students of color are less capable
and motivated, that parents are uninvolved in the educational welfare of
their children, and/or that their cultural values are at odds with educational
values (Sue & Sue, 2008).
School personnel, for example, often attribute the poor performance
of African Americans to internal attributes or to their parents. One teacher
stated: “ The parents are the problem! They [African American children] have
absolutely no social skills, such as not knowing how to walk, sit in a chair . . .
it ’ s cultural ” (Harry, Klinger, & Hart, 2005, p. 105). With respect to Native
American students, some have argued that Indian cultural values and beliefs
are incompatible with those of the educational system, and that this is the cul-
prit for their achievement gap. Likewise, many educators believe that much

of the educational difficulties of Latinos are due primarily to their language,
Spanish, which prevents them from acquiring the ability to speak “ good
standard English ” (Hayes, 2006).
Although these explanations may contain some grain of truth, they all
assume internal causation and have the unintended consequence of blaming
the victim; the problem resides in the genes of the group, in their culture, or

in their language. The genetic deficiency and inferiority models have been used
to explain why African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Spanish Indian
families perform poorly on intellectual tasks (Samuda, 1998). The culturally

deficient model described marginalized groups in our society as defi cient, dis-
advantaged, or deprived (Sue & Sue, 2008; Thomas & Sillen, 1972). Logically,
the terms deprived or defi cient suggest that people of color lack the advantages
of middle - class culture (education, formal language, books, values, and tradi-
tions) to perform well in classes. While the cultural deprivation theories were
proposed by well - intentioned White educators as a means of combating racist
and sexist biological explanations, they only worsened our understanding by
shifting the blame from genetics to a more acceptable one, culture.

At first glance, the phrase “ culturally impoverished ” appears more benign
and less harmful. But explanations of cultural deprivation suffer from several

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