Editorials

Sometimes controversial U.C. anthropology professor John Ozu Ogbu suffered a fatal heart attack after undergoing back surgery last week. He was 64. 

Known for his work on how race and ethnic differences impact economic and academic achievement, Ogbu first caused controversy in 1986 with the release of a study he co-authored that concluded that African-American students at a Washington, D.C. high school didn’t live up to their academic potential for fear of being accused of “acting white.” 

His most recent study, published this year, was on why black students at an affluent Shaker Heights, Ohio high school performed less well than their white counterparts. Ogbu concluded that the black students’ own cultural attitudes hindered academic achievement. 

Central to Ogbu’s work was the way he classified minorities into “voluntary” and “involuntary” groups. He identified voluntary minorities as having come to a new environment with their collective identity intact. 

Born in Nigeria, Ogbu believed that African Americans were involuntary minorities because they formed their identity under the oppression of the dominant society after arriving in America.  

The author of several books, Ogbu received the Society for Applied Anthropology’s Margaret Mead Award. In 1997 a special edition of “Anthropology and Education Quarterly” was devoted to Ogbu’s theories. 

Ogbu is survived by his wife Marcellina, four daughters and a son. He will be buried in Nigeria next month. A memorial service is scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7 at the First Presbyterian Church, 27th and Broadway in Oakland.  

—Paul Kilduff