It’s the sociopolitical context not a culture of poverty.
Hammond is brilliant and concise in her writing on culture and the sociopolitical context. She does not hand us a how-to guide by culture or promote a simplistic interpretation of one’s values and behaviors. Hammond names one such person, Ruby Payne, who perpetuates the myth of a culture of poverty in the communities that hire her and purchase her self-published books. I believe that Hammond refers to the experience that she had in a seminar to give the reader background on ill-conceived approaches to diversity in schools. To focus on Hammond’s awareness of culture, she outlines surface culture, shallow culture, and deep culture. We need to be cautious around surface culture interpreted as a “low emotional charge” (p. 22). I have been part of class discussions around a Muslim student’s hijab or a Sikh student’s head covering. (note DHS website https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CRCL_SikhHeadCoveringPoster_2005.pdf ) In the classroom, we have age appropriat