Defining "Acting White"

At the conclusion of the chapter "The Power of Peers," the author discusses academic achievement disparities between Asian - American and African American and Latino students. To best explain academic disengagement from Latino and African American students, the author references Fordham and Ogbu's article "Black Student's School Success: Coping with the 'Burden of 'Acting White.''" The author further contends that Black and Latino students do not hold education in the same esteem as Asian students. From my understanding of both concepts, the author has misunderstood both the definition of "acting white" and the importance Latino and Black students place on education.

First, the author argues "In many minority peer groups, scholastic success is equated with 'selling out' one's cultural identity, as some sort of surrender to the control of the White, middle class." Later, the author directly references a portion of Fordham and Ogbu's article to further define "acting white." Ogbu and Fordham argue Black students (and to a further degree subordinate minority students) disengage and disassociate themselves from academic achievement due to America's history of not properly compensating African Americans who have academically succeeded. In essence, Fordham and Ogbu argue subordinate minorities construct White oppositional identities that associate academic achievement with White and European oppression.

It is important to consider, Fordham and Ogbu's article concerning the theory of "acting white" face great backlash and has been "disproven" many times (Horvat, E. and Lewis, K. (2003). Reassessing the "Burden of 'Acting White'" and Pittman, A. (2009) Whited Out: Unique Perspectives on Black Identity and Honors Achievement are the first two that come to mind). Moreover, due to the great backlash, Ogbu reproduced an essay in 2002 to answer the critiques of his original theory on "acting white." Nevertheless, the critical shortcoming of Fordham and Ogbu's theory on Black academic achievement and the role of "acting white," is that it fails to critique the Eurocentric curricula Black students are forcibly "taught" from. As Grantham and Ford argue in their article "Beyond self-concept and self-esteem: Racial identity and gifted African American students" Black students disengage from their studies because they do not appear in the curricula. The two further their argument to state students, regardless of ethnic background and achievement level, are disinterested and unmotivated by personally irrelevant curricula and consequently underachievement. In essence, Black students do not associate academic achievement with white as much as they associate their education is white. For more on this idea I suggest reading Carter G. Woodson's "The Mis-Education of the Negro."

Roslyn Mickelson and Theresa Perry both explain Black students connect academic achievement with their Black identity. Perry references the learning habits of past Black scholars like Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass and notes their learning styles of self-education to overcome White oppression is the "African American philosophy of education." Similarly, Mickelson notes the Black students value education and view it as a method of social mobility, just as the author of "The Power of Peers" notes Asian students view education as a method of social mobility. However, the author incorrectly associates a healthy Black identity as one that is perpetuated by the mass media and emphasizes and "glorifies low-income African-American peer culture." Maulana Karenga (in addition to countless other Black studies scholars) would argue a healthy Black identity is one that has been grounded in Afrocentricity and is fully aware of the positive aspects and history of Black culture and scholars; in addition to, how Black culture has evolved since its interaction with oppression and European culture. Karenga and others who share his idea of a positive Black identity argue academic achievement is a vital component of a positive Black identity.