John Ogbu

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John Uzo Ogbu (born May 9, 1939 in Ebonyi ; † August 20, 2003 ) was an anthropologist and intelligence researcher . He was particularly interested in the subject of race and intelligence. His theories were controversial. Black civil rights activists accused him of racism , while conservatives accused him of blaming whites for problems faced by African Americans in the US.

According to John Ogbu, belonging to a “box-like” minority lowers IQ and school performance. He argued that performing well among African Americans would be considered "acting white".

Childhood and youth

John Ogbu was born in Umudomi Village, Onicha Government Area, Nigeria. His parents belonged to the local upper class. Ogbu studied and worked as a teacher for several years. He emigrated to the United States and began studying at Princeton in 1961 . He then went to University of California to study anthropology . In 1965 he received his bachelor's degree, his master's degree in 1960 and his doctoral degree in 1971. From 1970 until his death he taught at the University of California, Berkeley .

Scientific work

Ogbu was controversial as a scientist; the theses he advocated triggered violent reactions from all political camps.

Caste-like and voluntary minorities

In his book Minority Education and Caste (1978) Ogbu differentiated between caste-like and voluntary minorities: Voluntary minorities come to a country to make their fortune; as a rule, they are performance-conscious and successful. Caste-like minorities, on the other hand, are often involuntarily deported to a country (e.g. through slavery), but could also be excluded from society for other reasons (e.g. members of the lower class). Caste-like minorities often rejected the values ​​of society. They are not very successful in the school system and do not believe they can be successful through their own efforts. This results in a low IQ.

Acting White

In 1986, together with Signithia Fordham, Ogbu conducted a study of African American students at a school in a middle-class suburb (mostly inhabited by whites) ( Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement ). He came to believe that blacks perform poorly in school in order not to be accused of behaving like whites.

His theses were among others by Karolyn Tyson and William Darity jr. criticized by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , who showed in a study that the attitudes of black and white students do not differ.

Roland G. Fryer of Harvard University, however, agreed with Ogbu. He found that blacks perform poorly in public schools in order not to be suspected of behaving like whites. However, this phenomenon did not show up in private schools.

literature

  • MR Berube: Eminent Educators: Studies in Intellectual Influence . Greenwood Press 2000, ISBN 0-313-31060-2 .
  • O. Beuchling: Education as adaptation? John U. Ogbu and the cultural-ecological approach of minority and socialization research . Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86573-664-2 .
  • L. Freedberg: John Ogbu - Expert on Ethnic Success. In: San Francisco Chronicle . August 23, 2003.

Works

  • MA Gibson, JU Ogbu (Ed.): Minority Status and Schooling: A Comparative Study of Immigrant and Involuntary Minorities. Garland, New York 1991.
  • D. Goleman: An Emerging Theory on Blacks' IQ Scores. In: New York Times Education Life. April 10, 1988, p. 23.
  • Ogbu's Theory. (= Anthropology and Education Quarterly. Special issue. Vol. 27, No. 4). December 1996.
  • JU Ogbu: Minority Education and Caste: The American System in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Academic Press, San Diego, CA 1978.
  • JU Ogbu: Origins of Human Competence: A Cultural-Ecological Perspective. In: Child Development. 1981.
  • JU Ogbu: Black students' school success: Coping with the “burden of 'acting white'”. In: The Urban Review. 1986.
  • JU Ogbu: Understanding Cultural Diversity and Learning. In: Educational Researcher. 1992.
  • JU Ogbu: Variability in Minority School Performance: A Problem in Search of an Explanation. In: Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 1987.
  • JU Ogbu: Cultural Amplifiers of Intelligence: IQ and Minority Status in Crosscultural Perspective. In: JM Fish: Race and Intelligence: Separating Science from Myth. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ 2002.
  • JU Ogbu, A. Davis: Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement. Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 2003, ISBN 0-8058-4515-1 .
  • JU Ogbu, HD Simons: Voluntary and Involuntary Minorities: A Cultural-Ecological Theory of School Performance with Some Implications for Education. In: Anthropology & Education Quarterly. 1998.
  • Staff report: What 15 Top Anthropologists Are Working On Now. In: The Chronicle of Higher Education. November 21, 1997, pp. B7-B8.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Tough, 'Acting White' Myth, The . In: The New York Times Magazine . December 12, 2004.
personal data
SURNAME Ogbu, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ogbu, John Uzo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian-American anthropologist and intelligence researcher
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Ebonyi
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 2003