As a plausible explanation of Negro academic underachievement, culture conflict has been ignored by educators and social scientists to a degree not indicated by the wide range of evidence which points to its importance as a contributing factor. Reasons suggested for this theoretical imbalance can be summarized by saying that it has been controversial to use a cultural-difference model in dealing with American Negroes, and it is likely to remain so in the future. This poses a dilemma for those who want to help Negro children achieve satisfactorily in school. If cultural differences between Negroes and whites account at least in part for their different school performance, it is unlikely that efforts to raise the level of Negro academic achievement will be successful as long as cultural factors are ignored. For awhile, however, most social scientists will probably prefer to stay within the bounds of environmentalism in their search for the causes of Negro academic underachievement. The social penalties for failing with an environmental-difference model are still less severe than those which accompany success with a genetic-difference or cultural-difference model. (Author/NH)