Education in the United States: Is it a Black Problem?

This review offers a critical analysis of John Ogbu’s Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A study of academic disengagement. In his study, Ogbu explains the Black-White achievement gap as one born from the cultural attitudes held by Black middle-class students toward academics. Despite Ogbu's intent to further the scholarly discussion on this issue, the study falls short and is itself replete with limitations. Ogbu’s utilization of a deficit-oriented modality and an unsound methodology, coupled with his failure to critically analyze the interplay of identity formation, culture, and history, together severely restrict the study’s scope and utility. * This paper is a revised version of article (Doi:) which appeared online July 7, 2006. Ogbu, J. Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A study of academic disengagement (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: New Jersey, 2003). Eddie Comeaux is a Lecturer/Postdoctoral Study in Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Eddie Comeaux examines comparative race/ethnic, marginality, gender, and class relations with an emphasis on access and learning opportunities for underrepresented minorities and student athletes in education. Uma M. Jayakumar is a Doctoral Candidate in Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Her research interests include: issues of access and retention for graduate students and faculty of color, educational outcomes of racial diversity, organizational culture and campus racial climate, transformative resistance, service-learning, and higher education for the public good.