Students from across the Tri-State submitted their essays for the Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Competition. This year's theme was "Rising from the Dark ... To the Sunlit Path of Racial Justice." Today, The Herald-Dispatch will feature the university winner.

First-place awards are $500 for university level, $200 for high school and $50 for middle and elementary. Second-place awards are $250 for university, $100 for high school and $25 for middle and elementary school.

Second Year Graduate Student: First Place, Dwayne D. Williams, Marshall University Graduate College

Rising from the Dark and Desolate Valley of Segregation: The Hidden Truth....

Long before the development of America, the early Europeans were led by the spirit of imperialism to impose their culture and will on others who were characteristically different. This ethnocentric philosophy was responsible for shedding innocent blood of the primordial Indians as well as incarcerating the minds and trapping the bodies of the early Africans. Along with the psychological servitude of Africans and the genocides of Indians, this nefarious rule captivated indentured servants of Germany, Ireland and other European countries. The behaviors that were emitted by the early Europeans have left an indelible mark on the cultural fabric of our nation -- a fabric that heralds equality but demonstrates racial injustice. The key to rising from this dark and desolate valley to the sunlit path of racial justice are the cultivation of cultural awareness, multicultural acceptance and the inclusion of multiethnic and cultural contributions to mainstream education.

Impoverishment -- the dark and desolated valley

Although the devastations of these people were prevalent during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the ideology of such a dehumanizing regime has given birth to a generational curse -- the curse of poverty. From the perspective of those who have escaped poverty, impoverishment appears to be a consequence of lazy, uneducated and unmotivated people. My hypothesis argues that poverty is definitive and representative of the negligence and disenfranchisement of those who are in position of authority. In other words, poverty is an implicit end to the explicit behaviors of those who hold power.

In America, poverty is a condition that negatively affects all people who are bound to such circumstances, but unfortunately plays a more degenerative role on the lives of underrepresented groups. This assumption can be made because poverty, in its broadest sense, not only refers to socioeconomic status, but also describes a cultural deprivation -- in terms of disseminating knowledge of the contributions of historical groups. In this regard, not only do those who are impoverished and nonwhite face disenfranchisement, their history -- including paving scientific accomplishments -- has been buried in graves next to those who fought for freedom. This form of poverty -- the deliberate act of omitting the accomplishments and history of a group -- by far, exceeds poverty that exists in the form of monetarism.

It is important to understand that the cultural deprivation spoken of does not equate to what psychological and educational researchers of the 1950s and 1960s presumed. These researchers believed that African Americans were culturally deprived due to inadequate exposure to the Euro-American lifestyle. In this regard, African Americans were believed to lack a sense of culture because their beliefs, values, norms, customs and lifestyle did not emulate Euro-Americans.

Cultural deprivation then, as it is understood in this paper, does not refer to lacking Euro-American customs, but rather, underlies the lack of history and cultural knowledge of an ethnic group whereby an individual is a part. Implicit in cultural awareness is an understanding of ethnic origins and why values, customs and norms have been communicated and maintained from one generation to the next.

The authority

Textbooks that are read within the school system are representative of authority figures and are to blame for the cultural deprivation of underrepresented groups in America. Because textbooks are the primary sources of knowledge in schools, if information is not included in textbooks, students regard the excluded information as unimportant, secondary or irrelevant. Likewise, if teachers do not lecture on particular knowledge, students dismiss the unmentioned information in the same way they judge knowledge omitted from textbooks.

Sometimes teachers and professors become prey to ignorance by the authority of textbooks. In these cases, the teacher or professor is not to blame for their lack of knowledge of a people. In other situations, educators become the authority -- in which they have knowledge of multicultural groups but refuse to disseminate the information for whatever reason.

Promoting culture competence

In American, competency, as it refers to historical knowledge of a culture, reflects the dominant group and has been this way since the early development of our country. Before collegiate institutions were built in America, Euro-Americans spread their culture throughout society by suppressing the cultures of others. Today, we question whether our nation has risen from such an intolerant regime, but the truth is, imperialism may no longer exist in the form of annihilating a group of people physically, but it still exists in the form of ethnocentrism. This ethnocentric, cultural imperialism is explicit in our institutions and is responsible for maintaining injustice.

The greatest hindrance of culture imperialism that is prevalent in institutions is it ignores the heritage of other ethnicities. In this sense, culture diversity does not exist, thus, restricting the value of culture competence. For example, the school systems in America expect students to act in particular ways, and these expectations or norms are based on the mainstream culture.

Culture imperialism undeniably represents the theories that are taught at the undergraduate and graduate level; and theories that deviate from the mainstream way of life, many times, go without mention. It is clear that culture competence does not exist in the school system in that, historically, only a select group of people are praised during elementary, middle, high school and college.

Cultural imperialism is debilitating to education because it omits the intelligence of people in specific, and groups in general. For example, traditional psychology, as we understand it, has been used to interpret the behaviors and thought processes of all groups that exist in America. But few people realize that the traditional theories of psychology were developed and used as an attempt to explain the behaviors of Europeans, based on their cultural system. As a result, people who are non-white have been, and are still, misrepresented and misunderstood.

Psychology -- a Euro dominated thought

In terms of the study of psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, Jean Piaget, B.F. Skinner, John B. Watson, Sigmund Freud and so on are taught religiously in the universities. Without a thorough investigation, one would believe that Euro-Americans are the only group that has contributed to psychological thought. Sumner Francis was the first African American to earn a degree in psychology in the United States, in the year 1920, from Clark University. Why doesn't he have more than a mere paragraph in The History of Psychology textbook?

Sumner Francis' contribution to the history of psychology includes 45 publications on topics such as perception, advertising and the psychology of religion. He also presented strategies for the higher education of African Americans that aroused tension in the majority group because of the spirit of segregation. The education, life and death of the first Europeans who stepped their feet in the waters of psychology are discussed to the point of redundancy, but only a brief paragraph for Dr. Sumner.

W.E.B. Dubois -- the pioneering black psychologist

What about W.E.B. Dubois's seminal work on, "Souls of Black Folk, and Double Consciousness," in which he wrote comprehensively on the psychology of black people existing as both Africans and Americans? Shouldn't his ideas be mainstreamed? In fact, W.E.B. Dubois and William James share a common theme: Neither one of them was formally trained in psychology, but they both wrote extensively on the subject matter. (The first lecture on psychology William James heard was his own lecture.) Although these two individuals share this common theme, James is recorded as the great American psychologist, and W.E.B.. Dubois is seldom recognized for his study and work with psychology.

Unfortunately, as a source of study, African-American psychology students who wish to assimilate the contributions of such knowledge into their repertoire must accommodate to the theories of European thinkers, while finding time to independently study the contributions of the great men of their kind.

Let me acknowledge, though, the African-American group is not the only ethnicity that is impoverished in terms of receiving knowledge of their cultural heritage and contributions. This impoverished prevalence is the normalcy of all non-whites in America. Although the African Americans previously mentioned are indeed giants in the field of psychology, many would probably argue that they do not belong in the core curriculum of study.

Racial justice -- the sunlit path

In order to rise from the dark and desolate valley to the sunlit path of racial justice, all racism must be exposed and clipped at its roots: individual, institutional and cultural racism.

In terms of individual racism, the beliefs, actions and attitudes that perpetuate racist ideologies must be challenged and rectified through multicultural education. At the institutional level, the established sanctions and practices that are responsible for producing racial inequalities must be dealt with overtly, although the hidden discrimination may be more or less covert. In fact, it would be paradoxical to believe racial justice exists when the institutions that are preparing and educating American citizens continue to omit the contributions of historical groups from mainstream education.

Those who are in positions of power in the institutions must work in the direction of change by ridding hidden discrimination and including multiethnic studies -- studies that have the potential to empower all students of all cultural groups. And finally, a light must be shed on the demonizing practice of cultural racism, racism that exist in the form of explicitly imposing the cultural heritage of the dominant group onto less dominant groups. This attempt at assimilation by coercion is despicable and must undergo alterations.

The reshaping of a nation

Racial progress is undeniable in America, but something must be done about the existence of poverty and cultural deprivation, as well as the racial injustice that remains. Citizens should have the opportunity to gain reliable resources about their culture and heritage without being misjudged, prejudged and discriminated against. As scientists and educators, we must consider other variables that may be the cause of educational gaps and poverty, variables that have remained confounded because of the culminated interests in degrading the intellect of a race. How long shall the slogan, "Underrepresented groups are lagging" be lamented? And how long must we ask, "Does racial justice exist in America?" To answer these questions, we must first revisit the system and truths of oppression, inheritances, privileges, opportunities, poverty and, of course, power.

The future

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (1996), by the year 2050, our country will not be representative of a single dominant group. As this may be the case, we must work today to prepare for the changes of the new world as Dr. King worked yesterday to prepare our world. We must educate our children so they are prepared to face the future mentally, socially and emotionally; an education, cultural awareness and the inclusion of multiethnic education are the engines that will move our nation from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.