Rich, Black, Flunking (dated, but timely)

East Bay Express ^ | May 21, 2003 | Susan Goldsmith

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"It wasn’t socioeconomics, school funding, or racism that accounted for the students' poor performance, Ogbu says; it was their own attitudes, and those of their parents."

[MarineBrat]

Their project yielded an unexpected conclusion:

The fact that the conclusion was unexpected is just another symptom of the same problem.

[eclecticEel]

In Mexico, someone who shows too much ambition is accused of “wanting to be an American” - a surprisingly effective insult. Hence their per capita GDP is half of ours.

[TexasCajun]

The money quote: ...any one of use could have saved the skewl distict a lot of money for this study.

Ogbu concluded that the average black student in Shaker Heights put little effort into schoolwork and was part of a peer culture that looked down on academic success as "acting white."

[Patriotic1]

bump

[stephenjohnbanker]

Great post. Hard studying trumps sloth every time.

[CIB-173RDABN]

To a worker with only one tool, a hammer, every problem appears to be a nail.

[Saab-driving Yuppie]

Seems to me that the people who are getting angry at the author, and blaming him, are reinforcing the very point he was making.

[HiTech RedNeck]

"It's scandalous to blame the kids for this," he says. "It's a good school system, but there are weaknesses in addressing the racial disparity and it's not the parents' fault. Effective schools set up an environment where most kids reach their potential."

The only way to get here is the all-nanny state which, like Cuba, literally takes the kids away from their parents and puts them in a 24/7 government controlled environment. Maybe some black parents would be grateful for the babysitting service, but at what price?

[HiTech RedNeck]

In Mexico, someone who shows too much ambition is accused of “wanting to be an American” - a surprisingly effective insult.

So the ambitious souls head for the border -- legally or not.

[Clemenza]

Ambition has historically been looked down on in Catholic cultures as an exhibition of “pride.” In my conversations with Mexicans, both here and in Mexico, I never really encountered the “wanting to be American” comment (although I am sure it exists), but instead came across the attitude that it was bad to think that you were “better” than your family and friends by pulling yourself up and beyond your station. This attitude was common in southern Europe (to say nothing of Poland) until quite recently, and has (thankfully) been dying in Brazil as well.

[John Will]

Is that for all Mexicans or just the Mezitos and Indians?

[NonValueAdded]

Confidential to the African-American parents "worried that Ogbu's work would further reinforce the stereotype that blacks are intellectually inadequate and lazy."

It isn't the book reinforcing the stereotype, it is your attitude and your childrens' performance. Stereotypes gain and keep traction precisely because they are representative for a large percentage of the target population. They are insidious because they paint everyone with the same broad brush. But if there wasn't underlying correlation, they wouldn't last. The best way to break a stereotype is to look for the underlying validity and cure the problem.

[OpusatFR]

I worked with some Nigerian post-grad students a few years ago and they were very bright, anxious to learn and to go back to Nigeria to apply those lessons in their own communities.

They didn’t look for racism in me or anyone else. That’s the difference.

Our society needs to get past looking for affront in everything with the attendant attitude that accompanies it.
Yes, racism is part of the past, but it is part of the past. Time to move on.

[wolfpat]

...cited work by the Minority Student Achievement Network that suggested black students care as much about school as white and Asian students.

Oh yeah. No self interest there. /sarc

[silverleaf]

I have SO seen this attitude in the local public schools, which is why my kids are NOT attending them

Kids who achieve academically (any color) are shunned by an angry contemptuous underclass which is marked by skin color, not by socioecnomics. These angry kids are only protected and made angrier by patronizing libs who assume they cant learn because they are black or tan, don't have enough role models, enough teachers, enough money to buy fancy books, equipment schools and programs etc

We have high-achieving hispanic friends whose kids suffered the same thing from their peers - contempt toward education

[Da Coyote]

Very thorough article. Ogbu appears to be a good researcher, one of the (apparent) few willing to look into what’s really wrong and how to fix it. I’m sick of the blame game and no longer care who discriminates against who. Cosby, Clarence Thomas, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, et al certainly experienced race problems beyond my imagination.

All of them managed to accomplish far more than the vast majority of we white folks. They simply buckled down and outperformed their white peers. Good for them!!

[silverleaf]

“Ambition has historically been looked down on in Catholic cultures “

NOT the Irish, Polish and Italian ones!

[Oldexpat]

We make the same exceptions for black politicians. We don’t expect them to pay their taxes or observe other laws.

[ridesthemiles]

“It wasn’t socioeconomics, school funding, or racism that accounted for the students’ poor performance, Ogbu says; it was their own attitudes, and those of their parents.”
“The school system should take care of the rest”. “”””

I wish I could bring back LBJ and show him up close and personal what his “Great Society” actions have wrought.

We have 45+++ years of welfare, trillions of dollars of wealth transfer, and we have still got a group of welfare recipients who believe ‘someone else’ is responsible...but NEVER THEM.