Oppositional culture

Oppositional culture is a term that describes subcultures who consciously reject mainstream values and norms. The term is most often used by sociologists who study education, such as John Ogbu.

This body of research has noted that many black adolescents devalue academic striving, and pejoratively equate achievement with "acting white." However, the term refers to any subculture's rejection of conformity to prevailing norms and values, not just within the educational system. Thus many criminal gangs and religious cults could also be considered oppositional cultures.

References

Signithia Fordham, Blacked Out: Dilemmas of Race, Identity and Success at Capital High (University of Chicago Press, 1996).

John U. Ogbu, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., 2003).