OPPOSITIONAL IDENTITY, INVOLUNTARY MINORITIES, And IMMIGRANT MINORITIES John Ogbu was a Berkeley Anthropologist born in Nigeria.

He developed the concept of Oppositional Identity to explain why some one-time poor and working-class minorities (Jews, Irish, Chinese, for example) have prospered in American schools within a generation or two while American Indians, Mexicans, and African-Americans, by and large, have not. Ogbu presented the following facts to support his ideas. Based on these facts develop definitions of Oppositional Identity, Involuntary Minorities, and Immigrant Minorities. In Japan, most people belong to an ethnic group known as Ippan, but here is a small minority ethnic group known as Buraku. Buraku children tend to do poorly in Japanese schools. Ippan children tend to do well in Japanese schools. However, in American schools, children of Buraku and Ippan immigrants do equally well. West Indian students tend to do poorly in England, but they tend to do well in the United States. Children of Korean immigrants in Japan tend to do poorly in Japanese schools. Children of Korean immigrants in the U. S. tend to do very well in U. S. schools. Hispanics from Central America, South America and Cuba tend to perform better in U. S. school than Latinos from Mexico and Puerto Rico. Poor and working-class American black children tend to do poorly in U. S. schools. Children of poor and working class black immigrants from the Caribbean tend to do much better in U. S. Schools. Studies consistently show that Asian-Americans tend to do better in school and score higher on standardized tests than African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, NativeAmericans, and Puerto Ricans. Does any of the foregoing give insight into the fact that most of Americas white working class students fail to perform well in our public schools?