Reclamation of Culture and the Right to Reconciliation - An Afro-Centric Perspective on Developing and Implementing Programs for the Mentally Retarded Offender (From Black Mentally Retarded Offender - A Holistic Approach to Prevention and Habilitation, P 41-63, 1982, Aminifu R Harvey and Terry L Car

• NCJ Number: 92491
• Author(s): W Nobles
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 24 pages
• Corporate Author: United Church of Christ
• Sale Source: United Church of Christ
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The search for identity required that African-Americans reclaim the basic concepts of African culture, which are centered in the interrelatedness of persons (as opposed to separateness and competition emphasized in Anglo-American culture); as applied to corrections programs for black mentally retarded offenders, this requires an emphasis on reconciliation rather than retribution.

Abstract

Culture is the structure of language, behavior, customs, knowledge, symbols, ideas, values, biology, and spirit which provides people with a general design for living and patterns for interpreting reality. Black culture in the United States is the result of a special admixture of the continuation of the African cultural orientation operating within another cultural milieu, which is primarily defined by the philosophical assumptions and underpinnings of the Anglo-American community. The African cultural manifestations of spontaneity, naturalness, and authenticity are important in the blacks' daily lifestyles. The development and implementation of programs designed to meet the needs of blacks, including programs for the mentally retarded offender, must be rooted in a conceptual universe derived from black culture. This implies that interrelatedness, as expressed in reconciliation between offender and victim and between the offender and society, should be primary in such programs rather than punitive isolation. Eleven references are provided.