Even those of us who aren’t social scientists can see that culture can affect achievement. However, Asians in America are confronted by problems created by their minority status, yet have been able to overcome these obstacles, especially in math and science.

Ogbu contends that some minorities need not give up their unique cultural identities in order to achieve academic success. This holds true for what Ogbu terms voluntary minorities - those who have chosen to immigrate to this country. He argues that voluntary minorities are able to accomplish “accommodation without assimilation”.

In contrast, involuntary minorities are those who were brought into a society against their will. Ogbu reasons that involuntary minorities experience more problems academically due to their increased difficulties with cultural and language barriers. He further believes that involuntary minorities are either unwilling or unable to successfully acculturate themselves without giving up their own unique cultural behaviors.

The net result is a backlash effect as oppositional value systems are created, which Ogbu says occurs mostly in adolescent peer groups. This is called cultural inversion, which, in essence, is the desire to not “act white”. In order to achieve academic success, affected minorities pay the high psychological price of isolation from their peers.

Anyone can see the profound effect of what Ogbu describes on Blacks and Native Americans whose cultural identities have been subverted. However, it is harder to see how this would adversely affect Hispanics, most of whom must be classified as voluntary by Ogbu’s scheme.

Ogbu would agree that minorities are often more dependent on peer groups for their sense of self, making them more susceptible to negative peer influence. This is demonstrated by the performance of the Blacks I have encountered, who, more so than other MEPs, form cliques among themselves.

Ogbu makes recommendations about what can be done by the minority community and society as a whole, such as changing the perception of available opportunities and returning to one’s community to show the value of success, and provide role-models. In my opinion, these were not the root of the problem with MAP.

I have concluded that the peer groups were oppositional to academic achievement, but formed for reasons other than what Ogbu suggests. I feel that minorities have a greater need to socialize outside of a strictly academic context.

As a description of what motivates a typical minority student, Nick and Ryan have said that “goofing off comes first”. They have had to agree to not enroll in the same sections because their need to socialize has distracted them from their scholastic responsibilities.

While it appears that Ogbu’s findings do apply to the Black MEP students, for the most part, they do not extend to the whole. In general, MEP students are a high achieving group of individuals whose peer groups are not as intentionally oppositional as the group to which Ogbu referred.