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There is no doubt that the dominant culture is “dominant” on a number of levels: politically, socially, economically, but also linguistically. I had never stopped to think about the terms used by mainstream culture in referring to less-developed nations and their people until after I had worked with a non-governmental organization in a third world country.
“Culturally deprived,” “underdeveloped,” and “economically disadvantaged” are terms that are frequently used in mainstream society, in the U.S. and internationally, with the rationale of being “politically correct.” Reconsidering the connotations inherent in these terms, however, one realizes that such terms may in fact be misleading and distort our awareness of reality.
Applying the term “culturally deprived” to third world women, men, and children assumes that the dominant culture making this judgment is cultured and all others are devoid of culture. In fact, however, third world children are generally bicultural, and many are bilingual having grown up in their own culture as well as absorbing the dominant culture. In a number of ways, they are equipped with various experiences that the youth of dominant culture have been deprived of in a monocultural environment.
Similarly, many “developed” nations describe nations of the third world as “underdeveloped.” Are not these less wealthy nations generally those that suffered under the shackles of colonialism and neocolonialism? Were they not the nations whose resources and wealth were exploited? Rather than referring to these countries as “underdeveloped,” is it not more appropriate for us to refer to them with a more meaningful designation, such as “over exploited?” When one transposes a term such as “over exploited” while reading about “underdeveloped nations,” a difference in meaning becomes easily noticeable.
After all, the norm has been to place the responsibility of poverty on those suffering from it and remove the blame from those in power who exploit, benefit from, and continue to permit, poverty.
