Today I’m posting something a little different than normal. This is a conversation with NYU political scientist Larry Mead. It’s part of his series “Culture and Poverty,” and he’s generously allowed me to repost it here at The Glenn Show. We discuss some ideas from Larry’s book, Burdens of Freedom: Cultural Difference and American Power. Larry argues, among other things, that one of the major distinctions between “Western” and “non-Western” cultures is the role of individualism. Larry sees Western culture—as exemplified by the US—as predominately individualist in its orientation. When immigrants from non-Western cultures struggle to assimilate, he argues, it’s often because they have problems adjusting to this individualist orientation.

There are certainly merits to this argument. But in this discussion, I push back on Larry’s description of African American culture as basically non-Western. This, it seems to me, ignores a number of important facts about African American social and political history after the Civil War. It’s a lively back and forth, and I’m curious what you think.

0:00 Intro

2:04 Larry's view of Western and non-Western culture

5:32 Is African American culture "non-Western"?

14:57 Larry: "Freedom is a threat" to Black and Latino families

24:08 African American individualism after emancipation

36:00 The "paradox" of Asian academic success

48:26 What are the origins of European political development?

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