Posted on 06/17/2006 11:38:57 AM PDT by wagglebee
Courtney Smith figures she heard it nearly every day she was in public school:
“Courtney acts white.” “Courtney talks white.” “Courtney thinks she’s all that.”
Just because she did well in school and spoke proper English.
“The black friends I did have, we were the overachievers,” said Smith, now a 20-year-old journalism major at Norfolk State University who hopes to be a news anchor. “We knew that we 'talked white,’ and we were going to continue doing that. We didn’t care if we were teased.”
The “acting white” theory – that some black students are dissuaded from trying their hardest in school for fear of being teased by peers – has moved beyond academia and into public consciousness. It often comes up in discussion of the persistent gap in educational achievement between blacks and whites.
Now a group of researchers is saying the focus on the theory of acting white isn’t right.
“Somehow it has reached a level of prominence that is not warranted,” said Erin McNamara Horvat , one of the co-editors of “Beyond Acting White,” a collection of essays recently published by Rowman and Littlefield .
“It’s an explanation and it’s easy,” said Horvat, an associate professor of urban education at Temple University. “For some people, it puts the problem back on the students themselves.”
Horvat acknowledges that black students face pressure not to “act white.” She’s seen it in her own research. Yet she says it’s just one of many factors, including school financing and the distribution of top teachers, that could explain the “achievement gap.”
Plenty of high-achieving black students besides Smith have shrugged off the “acting white” comments.
“As I’ve gone through my whole school career, people have called me white because I’ve made good grades and didn’t conform to the stereotype,” said Ixavion Wright , 18, who graduated Thursday from Norfolk’s Lake Taylor High School. “My whole take on it was, I didn’t really care. I chose to be different. I just went to school and did what I had to do to make good grades.”
Wright graduated at the top of his class, with a 4.0-plus average – his only B was in calculus. He plans to begin pre-med studies at the University of California at San Diego in the fall. Wright, however, thinks the “acting white” pressure influenced other students: “They feel they’re supposed to be cool, and cool is not supposed to be making good grades in school.”
Douglas Reeves , an author and researcher on education in Boston, said a web of factors, including the availability of Advanced Placement courses and experienced teachers, influences the achievement of black and white students. “Acting white,” he said, shouldn’t be discounted.
“What we have is a generation of research and common sense that peer pressure is really important,” said Reeves, who is a paid consultant for Norfolk Public Schools. “Peers follow peer pressure for good and ill.”
He also noted the work of Harvard University researcher Roland Fryer , who examined thousands of teen responses to a national mental health survey. Fryer found that the popularity of white students soared, while the popularity of black and Hispanic students plummeted, when their grades rose above a 3.5 average .
The effect, he wrote, was more pronounced at integrated schools than at predominantly black schools. Fryer declined to be interviewed last week , saying in an e-mail that he didn’t want to “get into a back and forth discussion with other scholars on this.”
Horvat’s book, however, cites opposing research. One essay concluded that black students, particularly in the early grades, “value education and want to do well academically.” Another, interviewing black students in Charlotte, N.C., found that many avoided high-level courses not for fear of “acting white,” but because they saw too few blacks in them.
Yardan Shabazz , an English teacher at Indian River High in Chesapeake, can’t escape the “acting white” debate. He makes a speech at least once a year after a bright student gets mocked by another student. It goes like this: “What are you implying when you accuse this student of acting white? You’re saying that only whites should be able to speak clearly?”
“It has been my soapbox for so many years,” Shabazz said, but he acknowledges it probably has little effect.
The “acting white” theory originated 20 years ago with the doctoral dissertation of Signithia Fordham , who studied teens at a Washington high school. Now the Susan B. Anthony professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Rochester, she has complained that her work has been wrenched from its context and oversimplified.
“Acting white,” Fordham said Friday , is not limited to schools. Nor, she said, should black students be seen as the culprits; the issue stems in large part from experiences with racism.
Zina McGee , a sociology professor at Hampton University, agreed that the “acting white” phenomenon – which she termed “quite influential” – is linked to obstacles facing students, such as reduced expectations for blacks in the classroom.
The Rev. B. Courtney McBath , the senior pastor at Calvary Revival Church in Norfolk, got razzed for “acting white” when he was growing up in Tennessee. That didn’t stop him from attending MIT.
The best defense, McBath thinks, is “the environment of the home. If parents have taught their children that education can lead you to success in life, then the 'acting white’ idea is not as influential in the life of that child.”
And it doesn’t have to be parents. Daniel Davis , 19, a recent graduate of Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach, counts “older African Americans, teachers and counselors” as his inspiration. “A lot told me that I had potential and I could go far,” said Davis, who is headed to Norfolk State. “It stuck in my head.” So he turned the “acting white” insults into “a positive thing making me do better for my future.”
Some successful black students say they haven’t been plagued by “acting white” taunts. Darius Vines , 18, who will graduate Sunday from Kempsville High in Virginia Beach and enroll at Howard University, thinks he was shielded by hanging out with those of different races and immersing himself in a range of activities.
For Wright, the valedictorian at Lake Taylor, it was never a tough battle.
“I chose to break down the barriers, as far as the stereotypical African American male, and do well in school,” he said. “I think everyone else should achieve as high as they can, because in the end it’s all going to pay off.”
Black Conservative Ping.
But it doesn't amaze you that people would be persecuted for actually succeeding?
No, that amazes/sickens me as well.
So, liberalism by this logic, is "acting black"?
"Plantation" and its related mentalities.
Victimhood, just another form of slavery?
Unfortunately the DNC takes this crap out of the High Schools and applies it to adult black Republicans.
And another generation of this will only make it worse. Excuses won't make it better, and neither will the idea that being successful is "acting white".
I wonder if we'll hear about "acting Gringo" in a few years?
Its not a new theory or isolated to blacks. The best term for it is "A bucket full of crabs." Referencing the fact that any single crab can reach up, grab the edge of the bucket and pull itself out. But if the bucket is full of crabs, the crab attempting escape will always get pulled back in by the rest of the crabs.
The issue is not so simple.
I work in a lot of schools in the hood.Sure,occasionally a black teen will get teased for"acting like a white boy/girl"but it is usually done in a good natured way,not aimed as a vicious and provocative barb.Most of the black kids I know who are college bound and stay out of"the game"are "shown love"by the other youngsters who are most likely going to fall into the numerous ghetto traps that are out there.
One corollary to the above paragraph is that almost NO black kids who grow up the ghetto want to be isolated from their peer's culture.The same kids who know they have to measure up to "mainstream"standards to be successful in life also have to walk a thin line in not alienating or appearing that they think they are better than their classmates.Some do this tightrope act better than others.
This generation of black teens is probably the LEAST race conscious.Several years ago I sat in the counselor's office waiting for an assignment and a black college student was interviewing Ninth Graders who wished to have a big brother/sister.One of the questions she asked was if the kids preferred someone of their own race or was that not an issue.
All six of the black teens stated without hesitation that race was not an issue.They really just wanted someone,ANYONE,to care about them.
It's sort of like much of the rest of the world's criticism of the US and other successful representative countries.
Why would the existence of such well known things as envy and inferiority complex amaze you? It would be more amazing if they did not exist, or failed to manifest themselves - and they can manifest themselves only as bringing down, and pulling back in, of those trying to rise above and get away from the swamp.
that is a very apt description.
The company I work for has a customer support help desk for merchant side credit card transactions and recently advertised for 3 new techs. Some of the applicants were very interesting to interview. The ad specifically stated that applicant MUST be able to speak proper English, have good writing skills and technical troubleshooting skills.
About 1/2 of the applications were not even followed up on as you could not read them or make sense of them. Of the applicants interviewed approximately 40% were stopped due to the fact the could not hold a conversation without using slang, cussing or just being inarticulate.
Of the 1000+ applications submitted only 22 persons made it to the 2nd interview. It still amazes me that high school or college graduates are so totally unprepared for the work environment.
"George W Bush acts too Mexican"
Students who want to learn, will learn. Students who don't want to learn, won't learn. It has ever been so, regardless of race.
I wish we could we criticize people for being stupid, regardless of race, creed or color. This belief about getting good grades means you're acting white just gives proof to people like that teacher in SC who believe blacks are inferior students. As long as this belief has any effect on black students, those people are right.
How about acting normal?
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