Ethnic loyalism

Description and type: inclination among ethnic minorities or foreign students to cling stubbornly to their own cultural practices, beliefs, and speech patterns despite all attempts to assimilate their behaviors to those of the dominant culture. Repressive/rebellious disorder.

Symptoms and signs: uses substandard grammar and vocabulary in expository writing, essay examinations, and classroom discussion. Speaks Standard American English with heavy accent. Wears inappropriate dress: robes on men, head coverings on women in hot weather, etc. Skips class to celebrate officially unrecognized ethnic holidays. Vide masscultural loyalism.

Etiology: nonwhite and/or nonamerican cultural origins, exacerbated by parental and often community reinforcement, unchecked by school English teachers.

Treatment: phenohirschedrine (Witemalex) for digressive thought processes, yallomycin (Pangloss L1000) for speech disorders.

Prognosis: partial cures are generally obtainable, but total eradication of ethnic loyalism is almost always impossible in the first generation of college attendance. The most that can be hoped for is that the seeds of guilt and shame planted now will bear abundant fruit in the student's offspring.

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