Thread by @NonHumanMedia1

🇳🇬 John Ogbu and 🇺🇸 Signithia Fordham, both academics and anthropologists, developed the concept that Black Americans don't do well in school because they consider doing well in school as "acting white"
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Here's a quick wiki on their backgrounds

It's no surprise these two would develop this theory

In 1986 they published the 'acting white' paper which says that since BAs are involuntary minorities they have developed an "oppositional collective or social identity" and "[t]hey oppose adopting appropriate academic attitudes and behaviors because they are considered "white"

They also say survival strategies such as "collective struggle, uncle tomming, and hustling" made Black Americans this way but they are "not deviant or pathological" 🙄

"uncle tomming"

But this ain't anti-black American or to use their favorite word "xenophobic" 🤔

They also discuss the way Black Americans refer to each other as brother and sister or cousin as "fictive kinship" and those who are "encapsulated in the fictive kinship system" have greater difficulty "accepting standard academic attitudes"

From my research most of the foundational concepts about oppositional culture comes from Ogbu's earlier work including Minority Education and Caste (1978) and the concept of Fictive Kinship predates Fordham but she centered Black Americans in her framework

The "acting white" concept has been pretty much debunked but still lives on

Here's a 2005 paper by William Darity and Karolyn Tyson: ebony.com/wp-content/upl…

And a 2017 vox article that does a decent job summarizing why the theory is bad but won't die: vox.com/identities/201…

In 2014 Obama spoke about African Americans "acting white"

Notice he starts by saying the notion is "overstated" but then still says ehhh.. its kinda true though

Also he uses Michelle's Chicago "street cred" to back up his stupid talking points

In the year 2,000 John Ogbu was included in the book Eminent Educators which discusses the contributions of "intellectual giants" in progressive education

John Ogbu is the only African American (not ADOS) included and his work is still cited and influential today

Here's an excerpt from a book by a Nigerian sociologist from 2017 stating that 2nd gen Nigerians won't forge "a reactive black ethnicity characterized by an oppositional culture" and when you look at the source; John Ogbu 🧐

There are other sources but Ogbu is the genisis (1978)

So long after his death in 2003, his concepts and frameworks are still being used and is popular in academic literature today

Although Fordham is equally responsible in developing the "acting white" concept, it is Ogbu's work that has been more influential and widespread