On "acting white" for being a good student

[Brewman_Jax]

One of the biggest lies being promulgated is that a black kid being a good student and getting good grades is "acting white." The presence and success of the HBCU's over time show that to be false. Not to mention that the same is applied to white kids, but they're called nerds, geeks, straight arrows, goody-two-shoes, etc.

I believe that the term "acting white" came about because the high-scoring good black students are removed from their (generally) mostly black schools and often sent to private schools, which are (generally) mostly white. In that setting, most are not playing the standard football-basketball-baseball schedule, but are playing golf, tennis, swimming, soccer, skiing, and other sports that the majority of black kids do not get to play. In that context, those are considered "white" sports and those black kids participating are "acting white."

In short, it's not the grades, it's the actions. So when a smart-ass stupid freeper, or a self-hating lawn-jockey, want to tell that over-used lie, you've got a comeback for 'em.

Submitted for your consideration.

[msgadget]

1. People who are different are always nicknamed

As you say, other races call their brainiacs nerds. Blacks call their's 'white', I think, because to some their speech is more like that of white people and their different athletic interests may be in sports populated by more whites than blacks.

I hear blacks my age saying this sort of thing - I know Sharpe James pulled this in his run against Cory Booker in NJ - but is this label still being used among young folk?

[Brewman_Jax]

2. Didn't happen at my HS

and mine was mostly black. The smart kids were nerds, geeks, etc., but that was quite a few years ago. The term "oreo" was in place, but that was for the ones who didn't hang out with black people. Calling people "acting white" seems to be more recent, and the only ones I've heard to use the term are--surprise!--white people, esp. freepers who think they're making a point. Haven't run into any black people who used it.

[msgadget]

3. Ah, oreo, that brings back unpleasant memories! :)

So now it's a freeper thing? What's that mean, that calling someone white is done by...uh...er, lower class people? That's gotta be the main conclusion, right? Because at my high school oreo was the chosen term too. And, the people my age who use it are more likely to be in a certain (I hate to say it) class or have a kind of mindset.

[Brewman_Jax]

4. It's a freeper thing

They seem to enjoy the lie that black people don't want to get an education. The ones that have athletic talent will become pros, musical talent will get recording contracts. The rest will become gangbangers, druggies and dealers, or welfare recipients; those that don't become criminals can't do more than menial jobs--no other options. "Freeper" is a mindset, and not all freepers are lower class. Most freepers I've run into are white-collar college-educated types.

[msgadget]

5. Pardon me, I'm slow sometimes,

and I'm just now getting your point - FREEPERS are accusing black people of 'acting white'?! Okay, that's funny as hell to me because, well, it just is! And, the freepers who say it can barely string two words together, right? :rofl:

[Brewman_Jax]

16. It is pretty funny

the same people who talk about this don't live and have never lived around black people. They "know" black people--all 2 of them. :rofl:

[Karenina]

6. My experience was long ago

and quite different from what you describe. I integrated my elementary school in 1958. The first time I ever saw another black face in a classroom setting I was 16. When "we" graduated 6th grade the 2 girls, with whom I'd gone through Scouts and camping out, whose parents would hide me under a blanket on the floorboards of their cars to spirit me past the gatehouse, decided they would have to end our friendship as they didn't want to be called "nigger-lovers" in Jr. High. Surprise, surprise, I was assigned to an accelerated class, made the cheerleading squad, was a member of the Honor Society, band AND the school and community orchestras.

The president of our 8th grade class wrote in my book, "To K, who would surely be the most popular girl in this school were it not for certain handicaps, love you forever and always."

During that same year I was regularly accosted and assaulted by other black students who accused me of "acting white." There were multiple incidents of leaving the lavatory stall only to meet 3 or 4 girls (NEVER one on one) who would slap me around and demand that I "talk right."

The final straw was when Cleola Graves marshalled forces from the nearby segregated black high school (at which my mother was a counselor) to GET me. I refused to return to school and was sent to live with extended family in NYC.

[msgadget]

7. WOW, Karnenina, if you don't mind I'd like to share your story

with my kids. I've never heard this story told quite like that before, not even my mother's which was 'merely' going to a segregated school and being teased for talking white. Nobody every hit her though or called her skin color a handicap. Did the segregated school have the legal right to remove you from the school you attended? I can't believe the child of, obviously, educated parents had to leave her state to get an education. Was the school in NYC integrated?

[Karenina]

8. The "Rumble"

That incident was the best/worst/most confusing/downright WEIRD situation that I'd experienced in my life up to that point. Cleola's family had lived across the street from my most unfavorite aunt. (She had this thing about how I was "too smart for my britches.") The stories were legion and police visits frequent. We were forbidden to associate, (yeah like THAT was necessary, the Graves kids were older and "scary.")

As "progress" would have it, the surrounding area of the outback acre upon which my parents built our home got subdivided into 1/4 acre plots. The Graves bought and built 1/2 mile away. Cleola got on the school bus one day and told me to "Move over bitch." I told her I was saving the seat next to me for a friend who got on at the next stop but she could sit in the seat in front if she wanted. She screamed at me, "YOU BETTER MOVE YOUR BLACK ASS OVER" and proceeded to push me. I grabbed the seat back and screamed back "NO! WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM?"

A large white male from the football team came up the aisle, sent me to the back where the SENIORS sat and calmly told Cleola that she could have the seat she wanted but he didn't appreciate her picking on younger kids. When we got to school she waited for me to get off the bus to tell me "I'm gonna GET YOU!" John got off right behind me and told her to leave me alone.

She did for a few days...

Meanwhile the "buzz" in the cafeteria got louder. I was pretty oblivious as I was very busy and purposely ignored it. Standing waiting for the bus the one afternoon I didn't have an activity I was approached by Leon, another big guy from the team. He picked me up under his arm and carried me toward the main building. At first I thought he was kidding around and was giggling about missing the bus. (He was the quintessential cut-up so it wasn't out of character.) Then I realized how serious he looked.

"PUT ME DOWN AND TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!"

"Only if you come with me RIGHT NOW!"

So I followed him into the main building where he sequestered me in the Girls' room and stood guard outside the door telling me only that Jared (team captain) would arrive soon. I could hear the noise outside and was beginning to really panic.

Jared arrived after what seemed to be an eternity, we exited a side entrance and he drove me home. He told me Cleola had organized a group from the all black school, that they felt I was a target and in physical danger. I was hysterical and stayed home for a week after reading the papers the next day about the "Race Rumble." The police were out in force.

I told my mother I wanted OUT of the state. It was ENOUGH and NON-NEGOTIABLE.

[msgadget]

9. NOT the ending I expected!

Now, wouldn't you have expected a story about the 50's to be mostly about discrimination at the hands of white folk and not black folk? You and I both know how harsh we are with each other but, still, when I started reading I thought it'd be no more than a tale or two about kids dissin' you about speech patterns. I'm flabbergasted. I feel like a clueless reporter for asking the next dumb question but I'm askin' anyway... How do you feel about black people now? ROFL! I know, I know, it's stupid but, seriously, how did you feel around rough speaking black people when you moved? And, was your new neighborhood all black? OMG, I just realized when that must've taken place, around the time we were supposed to be overcoming, right?

[Karenina]

13. Ya know, Msg

I've spent the day thinking about how I could respond in a way that you and anyone else reading could understand...

How do I feel about black people now? I'm not light or almost white and have been seriously brutalized by the "black community at-large. I've also been brutalized by whites throughout my life.

When I moved to NY it was to a predominately black, solidly middle class neighborhood. Some of us were bussed to a nearby school in a solidly middle class Jewish neighborhood. THAT worked until the PTB figured out that the college entry stats were notably rising and including more minority students. They THEN insisted on bussing from a lower class black neighborhood with predictable results.

I don't know where to start, Msg. There's so much I could tell you of my experience that would straighten your hair if it's curly and curl it if it's straight. I've been on EVERYONE'S SHIT LIST and survived incomprehensible attacks from every demographic. It continues after having removed myself to another continent. I never expected to live this long...

My Unka Artie whom I've loved and adored since I was 15, is dying, having refused continued dialysis. I was born on his 25th birthday. I ask myself often WHY old white men embrace me so readily while "my own" go to such lengths to stomp my spirit into the dirt. :shrug:

[msgadget]

15. I feel ya,

that's why I asked. I hate that I get more hostility...well, you know.

I did share your story with my kids, who, like their momma, have experienced similar reactions (though not as dangerously extreme)to their tastes in music, manner of speech, very demeanor. And, the IRONIC thing is I'd still approach a sista in need if she and I were the Onlies in a place and she was havin' a hard time but I don't count on reciprocity. I'm - through no fault of my own - with you on that shitlist even though I am unapologetically a Black Woman wherever I go! In fact, I imagine a Black Woman Comin' Through announcement whenever I enter a space. LOL! I am bonded to my people but my people are wary of me more times than not. But, damned if I'm not ridiculously optimistic anyway...

Peace to you and yours, Karenina.

[fortyfeetunder]

10. Similar tales here too.

The HBCU I attended had social ills more like classism than the "acting white" type thing. Acting white was not related to academics, at least the dept I was in, but to mannerisms, such as hobbies, etc.

[kitkatrose]

11. If you don't mind, which HBCU did you attend?

Right now I'm finishing up my third year at Howard, and it's been an interesting ride to be sure. We definitely have the classism thing going, and then the different cultures don't seem to mingle. I guess since I fall on the lighter shade of the spectrum, I don't feel the brunt of classism, but acting white, yeah, I've had plenty of that. I don't know who the hottest rappers are, wear the latest fashions, or talk "ghetto" (which is stupid, cuz I know that most of these people up here are from the same type of neighborhood I'm from which is as far from street as one can get) or anything like that. I listen to "white" music, anything not rap or R&B or on the top 40 for the week. I'm not stylish, something apparently white people can get away with being (I'm not about to tromp my ass over a hill all day long in 5" stilleto heels, like some of the girls do here). I don't like to go clubbing, I prefer to read or write; and to top it off, I'm a loner, which apparently is not allowed by any race.

And let's not get started on HS; mostly it was teasing and ostracism, which didn't work all that well since I didn't want to talk to them anyway.

[fortyfeetunder]

12. I'll PM you n/t

[Karenina]

14. Class and skin tone in Black America...

My sister did undergrad at Harvard and was a legacy admission to Howard Med. We've discussed these issues forever between us... Talk about the elephant with Montezuma's Revenge in the living room! ;-)

[bliss_eternal]

17. Whoa--this brings back unpleasant memories...

Sorry I'm so late to this party. :hi:

[Karenina]

18. Care to share?

:hide: :hi:

[Brewman_Jax]

19. Kicking for a reason

we often forget about the not-so-good students who won't study. One reason they give: I don't have to. I'll make it to the pros or I'll make it on stage. Both are not good for extended career choices, but they have in common that entertainment is the only major field where black people are allowed to succeed if good enough. They aren't shut out and suffer discrimination like so many in the professional fields.

[fortyfeetunder]

20. Media perpetuation of Black achievement

It's no wonder why we see pockets of underachievement -- mainstream media, and even the Black media tend to perpetuate profiling disproportionately those who have achieved in entertainment and sports. So what are kids going to emulate other than what they see in the media?

[bliss_eternal]

21. Apparently you are white if you do any of the following...

1. Speak using proper English, enunciate and have a vocabulary beyond that shown on MTV, "Know what I'm sayin'?" ;)

2. Get good grades.

3. Date, hang out with, be friends with, or marry anyone outside of the black race, even if blacks never asked you out BEFORE. (Happened to a gf that is now interracially married--said she gets the MOST evil looks from black men), and the sisters tell her she was always the type to be "grinnin' in white folks faces..." :shrug: whatever that means...

4. Live outside of a predominately black community.

5. Have interests that are seen as "different" from other blacks in your immediate community.

I'm sure there are other things--as I think of more I may post them. It's just funny to me that this label hasn't changed much in thirty years. :eyes: and sad...

[Catherine Vincent]

22. A white female co-worker of mine told me I act like a white girl.

Don't know where that came from. I tripped out when she said it. Maybe it had something to do with her being from Philly? :shrug:

[bliss_eternal]

23. What an odd thing to say to someone...

what's worse is the media and world we live in reinforces the ideas that there is a way to "act white" vs. "acting black" or "mexican" or "asian." None of it is accurate, none of it is true. :(

Her perception of what "acting white" is, is probably based on the fact that she's known few black people and attributes certain actions, manners of speaking and carrying oneself, etc. to "acting white." :eyes:

I once had to use a great deal of restraint (to keep from completely going off on this guy )for stating that I I had affirmed my ethnicity with him, only after he saw me dance--prior to this, he had his doubts. I restrained myself (;))but gave him an earful about his limited belief system. Yes, I can dance and have rhythm--but we all don't. Watch Halle Berry or Chris Rock try to dance and you'll know what I mean. ;) (forgive me Halle and Chris).