Does this blame the victim?

After reading "Blaming the Victim" by William Ryan I started wondering if some of the ideas surrounding this culture of poverty within rural areas are in fact blaming the victim. In Ryan's article he mentions the victim of a "miseducated child in the slum school" that is "blamed for his own miseducation" (Ryan 275). This child is blamed for his miseducation through the same concept that has been used to explain why rural areas are impoverished, "cultural deprivation" or the culture of poverty (Ryan 275).

This culture of deprivation is achieved through this child being "'disadvantaged' and 'socially deprived'" and this "account[ing] for his failure (his failure, they say) to learn much in school" (Ryan 276). According to Ryan, "we are encouraged to confine our attention to the child and to dwell on all his alleged defects" (Ryan 276). This in turn makes it easy to blame the child and to ignore other important factors that contribute to his miseducation. "No one remembers to as questions about the collapsing buildings and torn textbooks; the frightened insensitive teachers; the six additional desks in the room; the blustering, frightened principals; the relentless segregation" (Ryan 276). All of the questions pertaining to the system and why it is constructed in the way it is are ignored.

When it comes to race there occurs blaming of the victim as well. Through the blaming that occurs through the idea of culture of deprivation "racism, segregation, and the powerlesness of the ghetto are subtly, but thoroughly, downgraded in importance" (Ryan 276). People of color are blamed for their state of poverty. The culture of poverty supports this through it's saying that people of color are destined to stay in this state of poverty that the majority of them are in. This brings about an ideology that limits these people and the other people in their state of poverty. In turn this ideology ends up limiting educational systems within the rural impoverished areas. This "ideology attributes defect and inadequacy to the malignant nature of poverty, injustice, slum life, and racial difficulties" (Ryan 277).

In regards to education this culture of deprivation is supported through the use of "'compensatory education' to build up the skills and attitudes" of the child, "rather than structural changes in the schools" (Ryan 277-278). The problem with this is yet again the ignoring of issues surrounding the system of education. With the supporting of blaming the victim that occurs through the ideas of culture of poverty and culture of deprivation many tend to separate the victims "out and define them in some way as a special group, a group that is different from the population in general" (Ryan 278). This defining as other only brings about the idea that it's ok to separate these groups in order to understand their situation; however, this is how the victim is blamed. The separation into groups of victims only furthers their victimization.

Overall, it needs to be understood that some of the explanations that were used to explain the inequalities in the rural education system were in fact blaming the victims. So how can we solve these inequalities? Perhaps a redistribution of wealth? This idea will be discussed later in these blog entries.

* Ryan, William. "Blaming the Victim." Oppression, Privilege, & Oppression: Theoretical Perspectives on Racism, Sexism, and Heterosexism. By Heldke
Lisa and O'Connor Peg. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2004.
275-85.