PJ Media

“In the absence of perceiving schooling as a plausible means to achieve social and economic mobility, Ogbu’s findings indicate that some of the Black students identified sports, athletics, entertainment, and drug dealing as alternative mechanisms for achieving the “American Dream.” Hence, people most admired by the Black students were athletes, sports heroes, and famous entertainers (p. 255)…

…Fordham and Ogbu found that some Black students avoided attitudes and behaviors they perceived as “acting White” for fear that these ways would be detrimental to their collective racial identity…His data lead him [Ogbu] to conclude that “Black students in Shaker Heights and probably elsewhere did not reject making good grades per se because it entailed acting White. . . . These students seemed to reject certain attitudes and behaviors that they perceived or interpreted as White, but that were conducive [italics added] to making good grades” (p. 198). These behaviors and attitudes included speaking Standard English and breaking speech rules by speaking Standard English at the wrong times, enrolling in honors and advanced placement classes, acting “smart” in class (e.g., raising their hands to answer questions, always getting the answers right, always completing homework and schoolwork), and hanging out with too many White students who make good grades. Black students were also accused of acting White for reasons not related to academic success but to social acceptance. For example, dressing like White students, having a predominantly White peer group, and participating in sports traditionally dominated by White students (e.g., tennis, lacrosse) were considered “White” behaviors. As a result, many Black students who valued social acceptance by other Black students reported rejecting the above behaviors quite often.

…Ogbu provides a detailed explanation of the reasons Black students give for labeling certain attitudes and behaviors as acting White. These reasons primarily centered around ambivalence toward Blacks who were successful in White institutions or White establishments in society with regard to whether they had abandoned their racial identity. This ambivalence was often applicable to perceptions of Black students who were successful in school as well. Ogbu’s new data raise the question of how the Black community and schools can work to minimize this type of ambivalence and dismantle the perception of certain attitudes and behaviors as racialized.

Finally, this section provides an excellent chapter (ch. 11) on Black parents’ involvement in their children’s education at school and at home. Ogbu’s findings on parental involvement certainly steer this discourse in a new direction by specifically looking at parents’ educational strategies at home and at school (i.e., how the parents went about implementing their educational aspirations for their children). Ogbu found that the overarching “cultural model of pedagogy” of the Black parents was that teachers and the schools should make their children learn and achieve success. Given this ethos, Black parents’ school participation and involvement were dismal among working-class, middle-class, and professional parents. Similarly, parental involvement at home indicated a lack of close supervision of children’s homework, poor coaching on effective time management, lack of shielding from negative peer pressures, and ineffective methods for motivating children to engage in schoolwork. When one considers the community forces simultaneously with system factors, Black student academic disengagement becomes a huge dilemma in U.S. education…” Carter