Students, researchers debate the ''acting white'' stigma for blacks

The Virginian Pilot ^ | 6/17/06 | Philip Walzer

[Crispus Attucks Patriot]

[Crispus Attucks Patriot]

"You're lucky they don't feel like you are obligated to support them."


Trust me, they will and they do.

"....cuz I moved up outta the ghetto - so I ain't real now?"
-Tupac Amaru Shakur, "I Ain't Mad At'cha"

[socialismisinsidious]

Some classes are weighted more than others...so getting an A in AP chem class would be worth more(over 4.0)than getting an A in a regular chem class or a home ec. class (worth 4.0).

I guess kids were taking the easier classes and getting A's just to be top in the class......now the kids who want to be at the top take ridiculous numbers of AP classes (and even do things like drop band in order to carry more classes that are heavily weighted).

[finnigan2]

"Eventually this country will have to make a decision about what to do with the spiritual grandchildren of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society legislation; the people who were stranded in the SuperDome after Katrina and all the people like them all around the country who have no education, no jobs, no money, and no ability to do for themselves."

- In our area we are able to get the FOX Sports radio station. Many players and black fans are able to call in and offer their comments, especially about basketball issues. While the callers are invariably polite, their ability to express themselves and articulate their views and opinions are an embarrassment. With sentences larded with "man" and opinions which, because of their poor grammer and pronunciation are barely understandable, they seem to be operating at below a grammar school level.
I despair that such products of our school system will ever be able to function effectively in a society which now demands that communication skills are virtually a prerequisite for success.

[wideminded]

This problem isn't confined to black students. Unfortunately one of my sons (white) once told me that if he studied hard in high school he would be "acting Asian".

[N2Gems]

ping

[CAWats]

Possibly it's an age thing with teen-agers, period?

Probably. I don't know. Cooperating was considered sissy-like also.

[toddlintown]

Ho-hum. Just keep failing and making excuses, but not on my dime.

[Right Wing Assault]

Beware if one does escape. He'll breed a whole new species of crabs that won't stay in the bucket!

Maybe. Ogbu's research in Shaker Hts., OH, showed that the children of successful blacks often climbed back into the bucket of their own accord. With help, of course, from the 'mainstream' thug culture.

[Right Wing Assault]

Some classes are weighted more than others

Also, schools that have + and - letter grades will call A 4.0 and A+ 4.333.

[Spirited]

Choices. We all make them and we reap the consequences of the decisions we made and acted out.

[ClearBlueSky]

A friend who is a black, professional woman in L.A. has bemoaned this forever.
If 'acting white'= being educated, speaking basic English,having goals,etc; then 'acting black' must be being UNeducated, unintelligible speech, and having no goals for betterment.
And this is GOOD?
Please tell me that an entire race of people have not only defined- but defend- being black as poor, stupid,lazy and illiterate.

[wagglebee]

I think it's still okay to excel in some sports and rap music.

[don-o]

Nail - hammer

Good

[Old Student]

"This goes to show how susceptible young people are to propaganda and indoctrination. That's why the left wants and controls the schools and universities."

Which is exactly why we need more conservative teachers in the schools.

[Old Student]

"Trust me, they will and they do.

'....cuz I moved up outta the ghetto - so I ain't real now?'
-Tupac Amaru Shakur, 'I Ain't Mad At'cha'"

I've gotten a lot of mileage out of liking one of his songs in discussions with the kids I've taught. Now you've made it look like I need to check out another of them...

[Joan Kerrey]

Why should it amaze you? They don't have a chance because of the discrimination so why should they even try. The only answer to this is to seek government's help. Affirmative action, reparations, ebonics training and welfare to even the score. The achievers are traitors and should be discouraged at all costs or the culture will be lost forever.

[Joan Kerrey]

Unfortunately the DNC takes this crap out of the High Schools and applies it to adult black Republicans.

Well said

[stands2reason]

“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.

Of course. it's whitey's fault that the taunt "acting white" ever formed.

Please...

And of course the SUCCESSFUL black students will say the taunt didn't affect them. It's self-evident, isn't it?

It's the group you ask if you want the answer to be "no".

[Intolerant in NJ]

“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.”...John McWhorter in his book Losing the Race talks about how he ran into "acting white" intolerance while growing up and gives some insightful case studies of some of his students who engaged in self-sabotage rather than "act white" during his time as a professor of linguistics at Stanford - a good read.....