Berkeley anthropology professor John Ogbu has written a new book on black underachievement. Focussing on school kids in Cleveland's affluent and integrated suburban Shaker Heights, Ogbu argues that a major reason black students lag behind white ones is that the black community does not value or encourage academic achievement as much as whites do. The New York Times devotes a great deal of space to trying to qualify and even debunk Ogbu's thesis, covering the opposing position in elaborate detail while neglecting to acknowledge that Ogbu is hardly alone in his assessment--Shelby Steele and Thomas Sowell, among others, have long made similar arguments.

UPDATE: John Rosenberg has the full fisk.