Cultural Erasure

... is a term used in this PBS hit piece on Father Junipero Serra. After a long list of crimes that are heinous today, but were pretty common for the 1700s, there's this histrionic paragraph.

Serra's mission project resulted in more than individual suffering; it also effected a kind of cultural erasure. The missions upended Tongva social organization and discarded traditional Tongva religion and lifestyle. "The Spanish mission was insensitive and antagonistic to the cultural traditions of the California Indians," writes William McCawley in "The First Angelinos." "Although some priests may have cared deeply about the welfare of the Indians, cultural conflict was implicit in the goals of missionization...acculturation was seen as flowing in one direction only, that is, from the missionaries to the Indians."

Let's see if we can rewrite this, substituting the secular progressives of the sexual freedom movement for Junipero Serra and the Spaniards and American blacks for the Tongva.

The progressives' counter-culture project resulted in more than individual suffering; it also effected a kind of cultural erasure. The pressure to accept all family structures as equal upended blacks' social organization and discarded traditional black religion and lifestyle, particularly with respect to the traditional, nuclear family. "The progressives' mission was insensitive and antagonistic to the cultural traditions of the blacks," writes KT Cat on "The Scratching Post." "Although some progressives may have cared deeply about the welfare of the blacks, cultural conflict was implicit in the goals of counter-culture movement...acculturation was seen as flowing in one direction only, that is, from the progressives to the blacks."

Works for me.