The ‘Acting White Theory’ Doesn’t Add Up
(The Root) — Do black students purposefully underachieve because they attribute being smart to “acting white”? For more than a decade, academics, policymakers and cultural critics have publicly chided black children for having an anti-intellectual attitude, based on the “Acting White Theory.”
The Acting White Theory originated in the 1980s with Dr. John Ogbu’s ethnographic research and is commonly used to explain present-day “achievement gaps” between black and white students. Today the Acting White Theory has its own Wikipedia entry and was mentioned by then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2004, when he said, “Children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.”
The Acting White Theory seems to have particular cachet among flatulent black people who feel a certain disdain toward the less refined (pejoratively “ghetto”) aspects of the black community. Many of them have been called “sellouts,” which reinforces a key tenet of the Acting White Theory. Other scholars, such as Edward Rhymes and Michael Eric Dyson, push back against the theory. In his book Acting White? Rhymes states: “Somehow many African Americans (usually the affluent, disconnected ones) have swallowed this misconception about African-American youth being anti-intellectual and anti-education. This ideology concerning nerds and geeks did not originate in the African-American community, but in predominantly white, middle-class, suburban communities.”
The Acting White Theory is difficult to assess through research. Many scholars who claim to find evidence of this theory loosely interpret their data and exploit the expert gap to sell their findings. One of the best examples of this is Roland G. Fryer’s research paper (pdf) “Acting White: The Social Price Paid by the Best and Brightest Minority Students.”
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Im black and I grew up being on both sides of that fence.. It wasnt that being smart = white… It was just that the kids who were generally the smarter or different kids sometimes had white mannerisms, or spoke like white people speak. If some kid is smart and outgoing, and knows how to socialize with the so called “ghetto” blacks, that person will be very popular regardless of how many books they read or good their grades..
Because far too many African-Americans and others do not know much about history, this idea of “acting smart = acting white” has spread through our schools and youth centers.
The real deal is that all of the original languages, arts, music, sciences, and academic subjects came from ancient Africa. At one time there were great schools in places like Kemet and Timbuktu, that taught reading, writing, math, astronomy, biology, medicines, and more. Those White philosopher like Plato went to study in Africa years ago.
And even the study of the ENVIRONMENT and NATURE was important back then. They studied about plants, weather, and related issues with great respect for “Mother Nature.” This topic was truly honored in Black cultures all over Africa for thousands of years. It was eventually adopted by the Chinese, Indians and others over the years.
WE SIMPLY ARE BLIND TO THESE FACTS…. because some folks have mislead our youth to believe that “acting black is acting like a rapper or a gangstah…or hating books.”
IGNORANCE OF HISTORY is a force that is keeping people down.
Stop acting White! No. That’s a wrong nomenclature. Stop acting Republican. I have lots of white friends. I hate people who act republican whether Black, White or racial minorities. Racial minorities should not trust republicans. Look what they did to Michael Steele, Herman Cain and Allen West, Candy Rice – dumped. Whenever right wingers see a black person coming out as star they will trick him for a temporary high paying position. This is removing him from limelight or powerful position. Once they have used him, they will puke him. By then the black conservative is useless. Do you hear about Steele or Cain or West anymore now? No. They have been trashed. Please don’t allude to all White. Allude to those racial minorities who act Republican.
When blacks says this, what they really are saying, quit acting so smart you leave me no excuse for being stupid and I got to have a reason for under achieving. The real sell outs are the blacks, who sell drugs to other blacks, having shoot outs that kill up everybody but them. Robbing and burgularizing other blacks home in the community, raping black woman. This is not being black, its being a fool. Don’t let anyone down play your intelligence.