<p>From an interesting thread in the Parent’s Cafe entitled “The Economist: Why Black Children Underachieve”</p>
<p>From Steele, C.M., American Psychologist (June 1997) at p. 623:</p>
<p>“Ogbu (1986) reported an interesting fact: Among caste-like minorities in industrial and nonindustrial nations throughout the world (e.g., the Maoris of New Zealand, the Baruku of Japan, the Harijans of Indian, the Oriental Jews of Israel, and the West Indians of Great Britain), there exists the same 15-point IQ gap between them and the nonstigmatized members of their society as exists between Black and White Americans. These groups also suffer poorer school performance, higher dropout rates, and related behavior problems. Moreover, the gaps appear even when the stigmatized and the nonstigmatized are of the same race, as in the case of the Baraku and other Japanese. What these groups share that is capable of explaining their deficits is a caste-like status that, through stereotypes in their societies, stigmatizes their intellectual abilities – sowing the seeds, I suggest, of their school dis-identification [underperformance].”</p>