Thomas Sowell: Assimilation And Acculturation

Professor Sowell shares his findings regarding acculturation and achievement in a multi-cultural society.

Source: LibertyPen YouTube channel.

Tony Brown's Journal show

(see video at the bottom of transcript)

Transcript:

Tony Brown:

If is there something that you've definitevly found that you did not suspect before you did your research, in terms of group achievement or the lack of group achievement, as can be applied to a multiracial society such as the United States?

Thomas Sowell:

One of the things that surprised me was how little correlation there was between acculturation and achievement.

Tony Brown:

Would you define it for us?

Thomas Sowell:

Well, that is taking on the culture of the surrounding society. That the Chinese for example in south-east Asia in many cases were lived for generations there maintaining their own culture, their own language. The Germans have done this in Russia and various parts of South America, other parts of the world. And yet when we look at groups like Hispanics, those Hispanics who don't learn English are far behind those hispanics who do, in terms of incomes and occupations.

And what I finally got out of all of that was that if you are working for someone else then you must know the culture of that society. If you are able to set up your own farms, your own businesses, be in independent professions, it doesn't really matter that much. But if you have to go out and work for someone else, then you must know his language, you must know how his culture operates, in order for you to operate in it.

Tony Brown:

What else did you find out about the Hispanic culture?

Thomas Sowell:

That it was not like the culture for example of the Germans, than in Hispanic countries various groups such as Germans in Latin America, have disproportionately contributed to the industrialization of these countries. The British have done so also. Then in numbers of countries of latin America, the Germans, the British, other groups like that, actually dominate many of the industrial enterprises of those countries. It also argues against the case of what society does. Clearly in Hispanic society there is no discrimination against Hispanics. And so therefore you cannot explain why Jews, Germans, other groups, Japanese in parts of Latin America, have done better than native Hispanic people of those countries.