There is an idea among certain young blacks that if their black peers are focused on academic pursuits, excelling in school, and speaking proper English, they’re “acting” like white people, which is a bad thing.
I’ve blogged about the “acting white” theory a few times on this blog, and every time I do, I draw out the naysayers — black liberals who claim the phenomenon is not as widespread as it seems. Having been a black youth attending school with other black youth, I can attest to the existence of a strong and insidious “acting white” undercurrent flowing like putrid sludge.
Many have theorized that the acting-white syndrome plays a role in academic underachievement among black students. That’s only one reason, of course. There are others. Too many black kids live in unstable homes (a working or partying mother and no residential father, for example), and because of this instability and lack of structure, they tend to watch too much TV when, in my opinion, they shouldn’t be watching any at all. Another reason is the existence of skin color preferences, a disincentive to striving to be the best. Why make the grade when being black will get you into at least one of the schools of your choice?
Then there’s the legacy-of-slavery-and-racism excuse, an embarrassing relic of an idea that black people born in the 80s, over a century after slavery ended and 50 years after Jim Crow died, whose great-grandparents have never experienced a day of involuntary servitude in their lives, living in a country where you can own $200 sneakers, an iPod, a big-screen digital TV, air conditioning and other luxuries, and still be considered “poor.” Living in America has spoiled us all. But I digress.
I’ll digress a bit more. Flowing from black underachievement is the perceived need for skin color preferences once blacks graduate — sometimes whole grades behind their white peers — from high school. Academically unprepared students enter schools with much lower grades and standardized test scores, do poorly, sometimes graduating on time, well beyond four years, or dropping out altogether. It’s a vicious cycle that won’t stop until people are finally tired of being perceived as second-rate.
There have been numerous studies on this unfortunate and self-defeating phenomenon. Writer and linguist John McWhorter wrote a book about it called Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America where he theorizes that there’s something within the black sub-culture itself that fosters anti-intellectualism. Last year a couple of black professors argued that “acting white” has more to do with status group inequality. Translation: black kids underachieve because too few of them are represented in “harder” classes.
That’s poppycock. Black kids underachieve because, generally speaking, studying isn’t stressed and education isn’t highly valued, and I think these factors are sub-cultural. That’s the kind of bold statement that irks black liberals, who inexplicably continue to read a blog they claim to loathe. 
“Acting white” is in the news again. A black economist at Harvard named Roland G. Fryer has come out with a new study:
Roland G. Fryer found the acting-white stigma is most prevalent in racially mixed schools and most potent among black and Hispanic males. In many schools, he says, it could be a leading factor behind anemic test scores and poor graduation rates.
“If minority students today deliberately underachieve in order to avoid social sanctions,” he wrote in the fall issue of Education Next , a magazine published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, “that by itself could explain why the academic performance of 17-year-old African-Americans … has deteriorated since the late 1980s, even while that of 9-year-olds has been improving.” (Source)
Fryer claims that black kids, especially boys, perform better in same-sex and same-race schools. He even has the audacity to suggest, obliquely, that integration may not have been such a great idea after all. Read some of Fryer’s papers. (Removing legal barriers to attending a government school is a good thing; government forcing parents to send their kids across town to achieve “racial balance” ought to be criminal.)
I noticed the trend toward same-sex and same-race schools. I have no problem with these schools as long as they’re private and not supported with my taxes. In fact, I hope to see more entrepreneurs creating academically competitive same-race schools, especially if there’s strong evidence to suggest that black kids perform better when surrounded by their black peers and whites are not castigated as racists for creating similar schools.
Yeah, right.
Thank You.
Great post, great blog.
Acting white as oppose to working for success and improvement one one’s situation. I know it too well.
The phenomenon you describe reminds me of some aspect in my our own society.
In Quebec society, when inferiority creeps its way into the conversations, the lack of appreciation for a positive attitude toward success dominate, we end up blaming Anglo-phones, the Feds and even the US for pretty much all our troubles.
It reminds me of the Palestinian society where blaming the other “race” and running martyrdom is more appealing than rebuilding their society.
It reminds me as well the trendy anti-capitalist stance these days, where youth and not so young people gather together to denounce capitalism as something dirty and dangerous, when we all know that free market, trade and good communication between nations help all of us at the bottom of the ladder.
Such is human nature, acting beaten rather than pulling our sleeves.
Comment by Diane — 12.15.05 @ 9:24 am
Wow, the battle continues. Amazing to think that some people disregard the complexity that race relations has now achieved. I watched Nip/Tuck the other night and part of it was about how this girl was offended at the notion that Jesus might have been black. Her passion about her white-ness and telling the “truth” about history wasn’t surprising. Her boyfriend, however, presents a bit of a deeper issue. While he wasn’t as overtly racist, he was very passive-aggressive in justifying her perspectives. His ambiguous support is where I think the real problems lie in race relations. It’s the casual remarks like “Hey, she isn’t really that black, why can’t I date her” that indicate much has to be accomplished.
It simply drives me crazy how people can be so married to the color of their skin.
Comment by shawn — 12.15.05 @ 9:38 am
I know of this first hand but I now think that class and family status is the real culprit here.
I got the “acting white” stuff up to junior high and then it leveled off in high school. Half of the top 10% of our graduating class was black.
We had lots of smart high achieving black kids in our majority white high school. In fact, a black girl who was a good friend of mine became the first black valedictorian 2 years after my graduating class. These people didnt need any “quota system”.
However, all of us were from middle class and upper middle class black families. Most of us had both parents at home. The black kids who didnt do well mostly came from lower class / income areas. Same with the white kids who didnt do well. They mostly came from poorer backgrounds and almost all from single mother homes.
There were exceptions to the rule, but it was mostly the same across the board.
The lower income homes are not stressing education as much as the higher income ones. Why?
Some dont have time, some just refuse to do so. Who really knows….
Comment by lukeNC — 12.15.05 @ 9:51 am
“Acting White” is something I’ve been accused of since High School and yet even still today it boggles my mind that there are still those who think this way. My older sister works for the Los Angeles Youth Authority tutoring “troubled”, and “at risk” high school kids. These are kids whose parents are either non-existent, on dope, or in the single digits at home. Most of them have been arrested for one crime or another prior to attending this tutoring program. You should hear some of the stories she tells of how these kids think, how angry they are, and how low their own self esteem is. It constantly amazes me! Yet, they always blame whitey for their perils, my sister sometimes stresses over attemptintg to “school” them on the truth. When she does she is met with great animosity, not only from the students but from other teachers and tutors as well. God forbid she should actually state these kids parents bare some responsibility for their current plight!
Comment by Jerry McClellan — 12.15.05 @ 9:58 am
Three Must-Reads
First, La Shawn Barber takes on the sub-culture some say discourages black students from doing well in school.
Second, inspired by the purple-finger solidarity gesture, Aaron brings one out of the vault from last March.
And finally, Tony Snow…
Trackback by Yippee-Ki-Yay! — 12.15.05 @ 10:04 am
I have an opinion about LukeNC’s comment: The lower income homes are not stressing education as much as the higher income ones. Why?
Some dont have time, some just refuse to do so. Who really knows….
Perhaps we are failing to see the difference between cause and effect here. Maybe we don’t have to discover why low-income homes aren’t stressing education - it’s more likely that these homes ARE low income BECAUSE they (the parents) don’t stress education. In other words, families are and remain poor because of bad choices, not the other way around. This obviously has nothing to do with race (so perhaps this posting belongs somewhere else, but it seemed appropraite given the vein of these comments).
As a Christian, I have struggled for years with the conundrum of how to help people who refuse to help themselves and who in fact undermine their own well-being by their choices. This country offers free education through 12th grade, but we also offer every type of social and financial safety net to eliminate the natural effects of our anti-social behavior. A rich kid can temporarily afford to waste his time playing hours of video games every day. He can “sow his oats” while avoiding the immediate consequences. He can waste his money on status symbols like $200 shoes, a flashy car and designer clothes. He can even scorn certain jobs as “beneath him”. He can do this because his family has money - because at least one of his forebears did not do these things. The problem is, mass media continuously puts forth the message that we all can act this way. It creates a false standard of living we all feel we should be living. And when reality hits - when we make the same irresponsible choices made by the cast of “Friends” but don’t seem to be as happy as them - what then? Some people despair. Some turn to addictive substances. Some lose themselves in video games. And some take it out on everyone else.
Sorry to ramble. But there are some of us who would like to help people better themselves, which makes it all the more frustrating when they themselves don’t do what is necessary to make it happen. Perpetuating the “acting white” mentality among young black males is an example of this, and it (rightly, I think) bothers me.
Comment by Jason — 12.15.05 @ 10:14 am
Sad but true, even after you get to college, you are still encouraged to avoid appearing “white.”
Pretty pathetic, but luckily for me I dont care.
Went to an all black High School in Los Angeles, and got over 1400 on my SATs and everyone disinginuously told me I was a “genius” when i was thinking to myself “well you could have done it too if you practiced as much as I did.”
Kinda sad when one’s self image won’t allow for self-improvement or intellectual pursuits. Ah well, life goes on.
American Zealot
Comment by American Zealot — 12.15.05 @ 10:26 am
Asians don’t seem concerned about “acting white”.
Comment by Jeff in NY — 12.15.05 @ 10:36 am
Jason,
I agree that some poor people have made decisions that caused them to be less well off financially.
But wealthy people are definitely not all saints.
However, true success is not how well you do in school, how much money you make, etc.
True success is following the commandments of God to the best of your ability. And following them is not a guarantee of financial or educational well-being in this world.
Comment by lukeNC — 12.15.05 @ 10:36 am
Amen, Luke. But I think God designed his Laws and Commandments such that following them gives everyone a much better chance to also make their way in this world. Living according to Judeo-Christian values and teachings is the best ticket to worldly success (by keeping us from self- and other-destructive behaviors). Even though worldly success should not be our goal, for those of us who would like to see this good achieved by those in poverty, we remind everyone and ourselves that, even if your motivation is “bad”, doing the right thing is never wrong.
And certainly rich people are not saints. In fact, wealth tends to make people forget their proper attitude before the Almighty, and before their fellow man. It is the poor who tend to have stronger faith.
Comment by Jason — 12.15.05 @ 10:58 am
I recall a conversation I had with two black students when I was in high school 25 years ago (wow, how time flies!). They had asked me what the bungee cords I was holding were for, and I replied that they were to keep my books from falling off my bicycle when I rode home. They looked at each other and laughed that I would use the word “bicycle,” mocking my use of the word. That struck me as odd at the time, but I wonder if it was a reflection of the “acting white” phenomenon? Of course, I *am* white so I guess they were just making fun of me straight up…
Comment by Rick H. — 12.15.05 @ 11:18 am
Thank you.
I have run into this so many times in my life. I can never understand the mindset among our own that want us to be as big a stereotype as possible.
Comment by Heresy — 12.15.05 @ 11:51 am
“Having been a black youth attending school with other black youth, I can attest to the existence of a strong and insidious “acting white†undercurrent flowing like putrid sludge.”
That’s what I’ve seen, even though I’m “just” white. In fact, when I was teaching and told a black student he did a great job on something, he proceeded to act all dumb and apathetic so that the other black students wouldn’t give him a hard time. When I told a white person about this phenomenon (which Thomas Sowell and Dinesh D’Souza write about), she totally denied it happens. But she’d never grown up or worked with a lot of black people, so she was going on a theory. If anyone has spent a lot of time in schools with black classmates or teaching black students, it’s hard not to miss!
Comment by mj — 12.15.05 @ 12:17 pm
I am a black male who never suffered from the insidious “acting white” undercurrent, although I achieved academic success on every level. I did not come from a nuclear family. I grew up poor in a single parent household. We temporarily received welfare assistance. In the second grade, I was assigned to a lower class level even though I scored well in the 90 percentile on standardized tests (this happens all the time to poor kids). It was not until my fifth grade teacher recognized my assignments were too easy for me. After speaking with my mom, Ms. Hooks tested me and realized that I should be working on a seventh grade level. I was the only one in my class being tested on a regular basis, but none of my classmates treated me differently. I attended a majority white high school. I took advanced classes, in which I was sometimes the only black person. Yet, I never had anyone accuse me of acting white. In fact, many of my black peers wanted me to succeed and get out of the hood. I graduated in the top 3% of my class. I received academic scholarships to many prestigious universities, not because of my race but because of my academic performance.
The point of this brief biography is that everyone has had a different life experience that shapes their views. My experience tells me that the “acting white” phenomenon is not as pervasive as one may think.
Further, under-achievement by any person depends on what we consider achievement. Is achievement defined as making all As? Or is it something else? I think achievement should be defined as a person performing to the limit of their ability. Using that definition, some of the kids we say are underachieving may actually be overachieving. Keep in mind, that our mental capacity is formed in the early stages of our lives. In lower economic areas, some kids don’t get the exposure to stimuli needed to enhance their mental capacity. Proper nutrition and positive attention play a role in the mental development of infants and small children. Unfortunately, many poor families don’t know this or, are unable, for whatever reason, to give this to their kids. So because of this deficiency, their are many kids whose performance will be limited by their mental capacity.
Are there parents who don’t preach education? Yes. That has nothing to do with race. Some of those people are just not good parents. But the conversation about achievement is far more complicated than just saying kids are afraid of social isolation.
Comment by Antonio — 12.15.05 @ 1:10 pm
La Shawn Barber on “Acting White”
On Nov 7th I wrote about Primarily Black Male Schools In Chicago??? in which
The Chicago school district plans to open an all-boys high school primarily for black teenagers….
Trackback by Mover Mike — 12.15.05 @ 1:21 pm
Great post, La Shawn.
Comment by David Price — 12.15.05 @ 1:34 pm
Black people need to seriously spend less mental energy on being conformist. Why should you care if you are accused of “acting white?” Why is being “black” such a great thing? Excessive communitarianism is one of the problems with African American thinking. We share a common ethnicity. We are not however therefore “brothers and sisters” nor do we owe each other unthinking allegiance or anything else.
Comment by DA — 12.15.05 @ 1:35 pm
I noticed this phenomenon openly being displayed on TV a while back.
Anyone here watch reality TV? I don’t, so I’m not really sure of this person’s name or what the show was about. (maybe some of you tv worshipers can fill in the details here.)
Anyway, flippin’ through the channels a while back I came across some reality show with Tyra Banks as the host. It had to do with models- top models? or be a super-model? Whatever.
Anyway, there was this one chick on there who had been “voted off” the show- or whatever the term is. She was talking about how she had come to understand why the judges were taken aback by her, and she accepted the fact that she “acted too white”
Apparently as a teenager she started her own fashion company, and her family was upper middle class. She was ambitious and didn’t grow up in the projects so apparently she was an “oreo”. (they actually used that term) And apparently she wasn’t black enough, even for Tyra. Because for some reason all of this cost her bonus brownie points.
Eh- maybe someone out there can fill in the details. I only saw fifteen minutes of the show as they were re-capping her time there.
Later another model, who was mix raced, was complaining because an all black model made inferences that she (the all black model) was the only black person in the group.
Comment by Jewels — 12.15.05 @ 1:47 pm
@ #17
What a great post; I never thought of it this way.
And communitarianism is a great word, and damn underused at that.
It is true that there is foolish compulsion to be a monolith, even if it means doing things that arent necessarily the best for each individual. I have seen this compulsion in many groups of people, and I feel it safe to say that having a sense of cultural cohesion is a good thing, but not if being culturally cohesive simply means bucking the “white” paradigm.
When doing well in school became a “white thing”, though, I am still confused about. I read “Losing the Race” and if I am not mistaken, this avoidance of scholastic achievement as a “white” phenomenon is actually a corollary effect of urban blacks trying to seperate culturally from white America - to find “authentic blackness.”
Authentically black can mean doing well in school, can it not?
Comment by American Zealot — 12.15.05 @ 2:03 pm
Great post LaShawn.
It’s really sad that the black community has lost so much of itself that even achievement is subject to racial epithets.
Comment by caltechgirl — 12.15.05 @ 2:20 pm
Caltechgirl
I am interested in understanding what you mean when you say “the black community has lost so much of itself.”
Comment by Antonio — 12.15.05 @ 3:24 pm
In the same vein..
Whats with black women getting so upset when a successful black man marries a white woman?
Not all black women, but alot of them.
I see this ALL the time, that black man gets pilloried.
Isnt that kinda the same thing?
Comment by lukeNC — 12.15.05 @ 5:55 pm
I get flak anytime I date a woman who isn’t Black no matter what color her skin is. As I get older I have gained so much respect for the kids I used to torture in jr and sr high school. You know, the Black kids who dressed heavy metal or goth and hung with those crowds, and the loners who dressed as they wanted and did what they wanted regardless of peer pressure.
I was such a jerk.
Comment by Mark La Roi — 12.15.05 @ 7:28 pm
The problem with low-income, low performing students is that many of them have their priorities twisted. I live in Memphis, TN and I talk to youth who know everything there is to know about rap artists, pro athletes, and American Idol contestants. However, they do not know their multiplication tables, they do not study at home, and they play more basketball than some of our Memphis Grizzlies! Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the countless other race hustlers and poverty pimps are part of the problem. Bleeding heart liberals who buy into the victim mythology are also part of the problem. Yet, the breakdown of the family in low income communities is at the root of this tragic pandemic. I almost forgot to mention the Media Axis of Evil: MTV, VH1, and BET. All of them are products of Satan (whoops, Viacom!). Let’s reverse this terrible trend by going into these communities and providing the leadership that will help save many urban youth. They need to buy into the concept of academic excellence now will lead to high paying jobs in the future. Do not waste your time trying to be the next LaBron James or 50 Cent. Instead, work hard in school, stay out of trouble with the law, don’t get/get someone pregnant, and you can become the next Condi Rice or Thomas Sowell!
Comment by Harold M. Baker — 12.15.05 @ 7:40 pm
The point of this brief biography is that everyone has had a different life experience that shapes their views. My experience tells me that the “acting white†phenomenon is not as pervasive as one may think.
Exactly.
What needs to be pointed out, I think, is the study that the Blog Queen refers to, parses data in a way that contradicts the theory of McWhorter.
Here are some other “Acting White” articles and studies for consideration:
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/spew4th.pl?ascribeid=20041004.082424&time=08%2036%20PDT&year=2004&public=1
The Burden of Acting White
brookings.nap.edu/books/0815746091/html/375.html
Comment by DarkStar — 12.15.05 @ 8:05 pm
I see the “acting white” thing in more than just schools.
Comment by mj — 12.16.05 @ 1:59 am
Acting White?
What is Acting White? What is Acting Black?
Trackback by AAEA Blog — 12.16.05 @ 1:23 pm
A great post by La Shawn.
Pingback by Inoperable Terran — 12.16.05 @ 6:52 pm
Mary J. Blige: The J is for Jacka**
Mary J. Blige would appear to share the ignorant worldview held by some of her contemporaries like Kanye West. I personally find it stunning when undeniably successful non-whites rail against the establishment for being racist. Huge crossover artists…
Trackback by The Noonz Wire — 12.17.05 @ 4:21 pm