Go into any inner-city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach kids to learn.They know that parents have to parent, that 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.”—Barack Obama, Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention, 2004
"Acting white" has always been a negative accusation within the African American community. It means that you're out of place and out of touch with heritage. Such an allegation communicates that you've rejected your inherited culture and traded it in for that of the culture of the "former oppressors". It means that you believe that white culture is better than black culture.
It means that you're a sell out.
Though scholars do not agree on a standard definition, they are certain that this social occurrence has a negative impact on black youths. Harvard scholar Roland Fryer describes the phrase as "a set of social interactions in which minority adolescents who get good grades in school enjoy less social popularity than white students who do well academically." In other words, black youths don't think being smart is as cool as their white classmates. Many researchers believe this to be one of the reasons why black youths don't achieve as well as their white and Asian counterparts. This issue particularly plagues young black males. Not only are they under represented in college, but they are more likely to be labeled disabled; more likely to drop out high school; and more likely to attend under funded schools.
We all know that adolescence is a critical age in terms of discovering and establishing one's identity. Many young black males are finding themselves having to choose between retaining what they believe to be a critical aspect of their identity or developing their intellect and becoming productive members of society.Their choice will determine how they spend the rest of their lives.
In my last post I spoke about how I had been deemed the "white-black" guy. It's something I've hear both within and outside of the black community (I've even heard it from some of my family members). When we make such comments with a moderate degree of certainty not only are we reserving what we perceive to be intellectual or academic but we also assign what we perceive to be base or vulgar to another. We create a completely arbitrary measure of how authentic we are to our respective groups instead of celebrating each others unique qualities. We carve out these neat little sections for each group within society and we accept whatever roles these sections prescribe, not realizing that these sections keep us from understanding one another. Where there is no understanding there can be no trust and how can we build strong communities without trust.
But my black coworkers filled me with some hope. They didn't have any roles or expectations that I needed to meet in order to satisfy some standard of "blackness". But apparently some of my other coworkers did, to whom I gladly disappointed.
I have heard this same thing told so many different ways from several different people. It does come down to the parents, and their parenting. But, as I am talking about the Law of Attraction, there are ways these kids can still grow up to be something, and lose the negative connotation associated with "acting white". As adults we all come from a past child hood of learned behavior. Our parents taught us only what they knew, and that's what, in turn we knew. As adults we have the ability to see beyond that, and learn to re-teach ourselves the Truth about what we want, and want to believe. When we realize it's all just "learned behavior" then we can move forward. :)
ReplyDeleteBeing part of a community is a good thing, but it usually comes with a set of expectations. My wife grew up in a small, working class Texas town. She was the first person in her extended family to graduate from college.. And then she got a PhD, became a professor and got famous. Some people form her hometown are proud of her. Some feel like she betrayed them and thinks she is better than they are. It makes going home hard. And this is not a case of racial identity, an extraordinarily fraught thing in America. Certainly parents and immediate family can help you be proud and successful in school. But parents are not the whole community, and you can't live in the house all your life. But then, no "community" is homogeneous; There are black lawyers, doctors, professors, businesspersons all over, including Tampa. It sounds like a stupid comparison, and perhaps it is, but there was a episode of the TV show "Glee" about being ostracized in high school for being dorky. A vastly different thing of course. But their song "Loser Like ME' was a funny response. It helped my brainiac child be happy as the smart kid at school.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated the fact that you identified that there are sub-sects in every cultural group and social order. For example, in high school one might be labeled as a jock, nerd, preppy individual, etc. I can kind of relate to this because I grew up in a very wealthy city (Naples, FL), with a family who was extremely middle class with very little disposable income. Now I know my situation was less race/ethnicity related; but I did experience similar judgement and mistreatment from others that could afford to go places and do things at the drop of a hat because they had "mommy and daddy" money.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you are talking about this topic. I experienced/witnessed the "white-black guy" on different sides. My little brother is deemed "white-black" by some of his friends because he doesn't like hip-hop music or some of the stereotypical likes of black people. Then there is the uppity wealthy black people who look down on everybody else and surround themselves with white people. They like the name "white-black" like it's a compliment. It's sad that completely degrade anybody else who is it not in their social status like the "ghetto or ratchet people" they called them. "Acting white" can be negative to some but to others it is positive. It may irritate my brother but he doesn't care and he isn't going to change what he likes or play stupid to fit in. He is who he is. The people who call him the "white-black" kid are usually the white kids at his school.
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