12 Facts About John Ogbu

John Uzo Ogbu was a Nigerian-American anthropologist and professor known for his theories on observed phenomena involving race and intelligence, especially how race and ethnic differences played out in educational and economic achievement.

John Ogbu suggested that being a "caste-like minority" affects motivation and achievement, depressing IQ scores.

John Ogbu concluded that some students did poorly because high achievement was considered "acting white" among their peers.

John Ogbu enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary with the intention of becoming a minister in Nigeria but soon transferred to the University of California, Berkeley to study anthropology.

John Ogbu taught at UC Berkeley from 1970 until his death.

John Ogbu argues that cultural differences alone cannot account for differences in minority education, since some minority communities do quite well and others do not.

John Ogbu says that many of these secondary differences are created by subordinate groups in opposition to the cultural references of the dominant group.

In Minority Education and Caste, John Ogbu argued that involuntary minorities often adopted an oppositional identity to the mainstream culture in response to a glass ceiling imposed or maintained by white society on the job-success of their parents and others in their communities.

In 1996, John Ogbu played a prominent role in the debate about the utility of African American Vernacular English.

John Ogbu encouraged teachers to become familiar with and to make use of this variety in helping speakers of African American Vernacular English acquire Standard American English in addition to their "home" variety.

John Ogbu died in 2003 after suffering from a post-surgery heart attack at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center.

John Ogbu is survived by his wife, Marcellina Ada Ogbu, and his children Elizabeth, Nnanna, Grace, Cecilia, and Christina.