Through a link on BlackElectorate.com, I found a recent study conducted by Duke University called “Breeding Animosity: The ‘Burden Of Acting White’ and Other Problems of Status Group Hierarchies in Schools.” (PDF)
(Update (10/7): The study is no longer available online. You have to e-mail one of the authors to receive a copy. Why, I don’t know.)
The study is based on an earlier one conducted by Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu in the 1980s, which hypothesized that black students viewed high academic achievement as “acting white”, which is perceived to be a negative quality.
I printed it out and haven’t read it, but listed in the abstract (also PDF) are a few findings. The researchers found a “general sentiment against high academic achievement” among kids in North Carolina (where the study was conducted), regardless of race.
They found limited evidence of “racialized peer pressure against academic achievement in the high school level.” They claim the peer pressure is most likely to occur where blacks are “grossly underrepresented in the most demanding courses”, such as Advanced Placement classes.
Karolyn Tyson, William Darity, Jr., and Domini Catellino concluded: “The burden of ‘acting white’ does constitute a problem for some black adolescents….However, the problem is not one of culture as the original theory [Ogbu's] implied, but one of status group inequality in schools.”
Let me state my bias up front, as if people don’t already know. I believe the problem is cultural, and the sooner we admit that, the sooner we can find solutions to the problem. Therefore, I disagree with the study’s conclusion. But I will read it, all 76 pages, and blog about it. In fact, I’ll probably write a column. Newspaper editors like op-eds that summarize controversial studies.
Part of my bias stems from my own experience in school. I grew up in a tiny, insignificant part of the world in a small town in South Carolina. In the government-run (sounds more descriptive than public) schools I attended, I saw firsthand the “burden of acting white.”
I was a lazy student, myself, so I wasn’t one of the black kids taunted for being high achievers. Academic achievement wasn’t encouraged (nor discouraged) or even expected in my home. If it happened, great, as was the case with my youngest sister. But I wasn’t afraid to bring home C’s, as many high-achieving students were.
I suspect the researchers of the new report set out to specifically refute Ogbu’s hypothesis rather than merely “test” it, as they claim, which is OK as long as they’re not pretending to be objective. I’ll try to keep an open mind as I read it.
Many people have written about the phenomenon of “anti-intellectualism” among black students, including John McWhorter in Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. From a review at THBookService.com:
The black community itself, he [John McWhorter] says, is the main obstacle to achieving the full integration sought by our nation’s civil rights leaders. As the black culture has become addicted to “underdoggism,” a prevailing attitude of victimhood has led to a lack of effort and eventual failure. Even criminology gets a tacit stamp of approval because it is “understandable.” McWhorter’s boldness doesn’t stop there. Some of the ideas sure to ignite controversy:— Why it is untrue that unequal distribution of resources has led to the notorious lag in black students’ grades and test scores: McWhorter unabashedly provides the real reason behind poor academic performance
— How basic facts speak against the black conviction that conditions have not changed dramatically for their population (statistics simply don’t back them up)
— Why the roots of victimology can be traced to the forced desegregation of the United States in the 1960s
— Remember the controversy over the word “niggardly”? David Howard, a white ombudsman to the newly elected mayor of Washington, D.C. used the word in its rightful context — it means “stingy” — yet Howard lost his job…McWhorter’s take on the whole matter is piercingly insightful
— How a distrust of their former white oppressors has led blacks to a pervasive mindset against intellectualism
— Why it is reasonable for police officers to stop more young black males than any other type of person — without being racist at all
— The anti-Americanism spawned by black separatism, carefully analyzed and dissected by McWhorter: how separatism encourages black Americans to conceive of black people as an unofficial “sovereign” entity, immune from the same rules as other Americans
— How the grip of “victimology” encourages black Americans from birth to fixate upon the remnants of racism, and actually downplay the obvious signs of its demise; the grievous results of the sentiment that racism lurks in every corner
— Suggestions for getting back on the track that civil rights leaders set us upon, so that black Americans can at last experience true equality in the only country that will ever be their home
I highly recommend this book, as well as Authentically Black. One of the themes of the book is that being “authentically black” means keeping whites “on the hook.” If you don’t, you’re not. Buy the book or check it out if you don’t understand what I mean.
Stay tuned for my assessment of the new study…
Addendum: Near the end of the abstract is this interesting bit of information: “Future studies will report on our findings concerning the process that lead to black student under-representation in more challenging curricula.” I’ll save my commentary for another day.
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Interesting links:
Reviews of Losing the Race and Authentically Black by Dutch Martin, and Acting Bright by Joanne Jacobs.
Update (12/13/04): Welcome, new visitors! I had a chance to read Paul Tough’s article in the New York Times Magazine, which is why many of you are here, I assume. Please see this updated post, where I welcome your comments.
