Acting White

Many leaders, including Barak Obama, have accepted and propagated the idea that black youths are not doing well in school because it is considered “acting white”. Now, every time the issue of black underperformance is mentioned, it is not attributed to failures of the system or to failures of the society as a whole to promote the recovery of blacks for centuries of racism, it is attributed to the fear of “acting white”. Do black youth truly associate doing well in school with being white like, "acting white" or selling out? Is this myth or reality? Here is what I think.

I believe that the phenomenon called "acting white" derived from the period of integration. When black kids lived in predominately black communities, as many still do, and attended predominately black schools, how did they know how white kids acted or what kind of grades they earned? In an all black environment getting good grades has no racial juxtapostion. The only way that such a saying could manifest in an all black environment is if those blacks believed that to be smart is to be white like. It would be akin to a white guy who could jump high being black like. In other words, abnormal for the race.

What happened is that black kids who studied hard and did their work, in an integrated setting, had a pattern of behavior like many white kids who studied hard and did their work. These black kids eventually found more in common educationally with the white kids and often started studying and spending more time around them as opposed to around blacks. Some black youth then interpreted this behavior as selling out, acting or wanting to be white. It was more associated with who the kids hung around and how they sounded than it was associated with good grades. Hence, many black youth who hung around whites and sounded like whites but who earned poor grades were still considered "acting white".

I don’t really believe that black youth see doing well in school as being white like as leaders and pundits have alluded. What that would then imply underneath is that black youth associate intelligence with being white and the lack there of with being black. So if its true, this society has done major damage to the phyche of blacks. Hence, any black person trying to be intelligent is trying to be like whites. I don’t buy that at all, but if true it is an indictment against this society. Acting white really has little or nothing to do with doing well in school, but is more so rooted in black youth who start hanging around and talking like whites. One can speak intelligently while sounding black. If you sound like Bryant Gumbel that is sounding "white". Micheal Eric Dyson and Cornell West sound very black as well as intellectual.

Don’t get me wrong, for I am not denouncing integration. What I am saying is that when blacks were in black school environments the concept of getting good grades was never associated with whiteness. Now, however, given how rapidly slang spreads, acting white may indeed be a term used to characterize black youth who do well in school. However, slang is often used because it is popular and not because it accurately describes what a person is thinking or feeling. Now leaders are literally interpreting slang thinking that black youth actually feel that to be smart is to be white. One cannot take slang at face value, but everyone seems to be jumping on this bandwagon.

The truth of the matter is that all groups of youths have derogatory terms and ostracize those who are not popular or manifesting normative behavior for the group. The term “Nerd” did not derive from the black community. White kids popularized the term and it was applied to smart white kids who did not fit in or socially interact with the other youth. Kids have always been cruel in their ability to ostracize other youths. Such things happen in the black community as well as the white community. However, when it happens in the black community it is used to explain why blacks do poorly. Well, why don't white youths do poorly like blacks given that smart white youths are also often they ostracized?

I think that the issue of white supremacy must be looked at here. Why is the idea of getting good grades associated with acting white? Why is it not considered acting Asian, as Asians tend to do better than whites? Why don’t white youth who do extremely well in school get ostracized as “acting Asian”? Why is the benchmark for intelligence the behavior of whites? If black youth actually do believe that being smart is "acting white" is this part of the legacy effect of centuries of the doctrine and mantra of white supremacy? Is it incidental that black youth just happen to see the bench mark for intelligence as white people? How did they become the template for that which is good?

I can only imagine that whites find it flattering just like black men are flattered by some of the myths associated with us. In fact, many black men even promote the myth because they benefit from it. In the same way, I don't doubt that whites like promoting the myths that are to their benefit as well.