Acting Black: College, Identity, and the Performance of Race

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 224 pages
• Published by: Routledge
• Edition: 1st Edition January 16, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0415944090
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0415944090
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Review
A bold, original analysis demonstrating the crucibles of identity creation faced by Black students at historically Black and historically white colleges and universities.
–Joe Feagin, co-author of The Agony of Education: Black Students at White Colleges and Universities

Sarah Willie analyzes the array of experiences that constitute what it means to be Black for African American students. She challenges fixed notions of race, showing how Black students negotiate complex racial identities in the different contexts of historically Black colleges and predominantly white institutions. This important book shows that providing equitable education for Black students is more than a matter of numerical representation. Professor Willie's book should be required reading for college administrators and faculty.
–Margaret L. Andersen, author of Thinking About Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender

Sarah Willie analyzes the array of experiences that constitute what it means to be Black for African American students. She challenges fixed notions of race, showing how Black students negotiate complex racial identities in the different contexts of historically Black colleges and predominantly white institutions. This important book shows that providing equitable education for Black students is more than a matter of numerical representation. Professor Willie's book should be required reading for college administrators and faculty.
–Margaret L. Andersen, author of Thinking About Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender

A bold, original analysis demonstrating the crucibles of identity creation faced by Black students at historically Black and historically white colleges and universities.
–Joe Feagin, co-author of The Agony of Education: Black Students at White Colleges and Universities

Sarah Willie has given us a work of great insight and unshakable commitment to racial justice. This book will be indispensable for every teacher and every student concerned with race on campus, and indeed, with race in American society. A must-have, must-read, must-teach work.
–Howard Winant, author of The World is a Ghetto: The Making of a New World Racial Order

To what degree is race a malleable, contingent, and performable social identity? Does formal equality coexist with informal inequality, and if so, with what consequences? Are Black colleges the answer? If you, like me, have ever wondered about any of these questions, you must read this fascinating book that raises and addresses such issues.
–Caroline Hodges Persell, co-author of Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools



Sarah Willie has given us a work of great insight and unshakable commitment to racial justice. This book will be indispensable for every teacher and every student concerned with race on campus, and indeed, with race in American society. A must-have, must-read, must-teach work.
–Howard Winant, author of The World is a Ghetto: The Making of a New World Racial Order

To what degree is race a malleable, contingent, and performable social identity? Does formal equality coexist with informal inequality, and if so, with what consequences? Are Black colleges the answer? If you, like me, have ever wondered about any of these questions, you must read this fascinating book that raises and addresses such issues.
–Caroline Hodges Persell, co-author of Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools

Product Description
In the optimism of the post-Civil Rights era, affirmative action was still novel and not yet facing the attacks of the present. Against this historical backdrop, Sarah Willie asked the question: How different was it to be Black at a historically Black university versus a traditionally White one? Acting Black contains interviews with nearly sixty African-American men and women who either attended Northwestern University, a predominantly White school, or Howard University, a predominantly Black school. In this poignant and perceptive book, Willie reveals the intransigence of racism, the power of friendship, the difference of class inequality and the need for an identity that is stable and flexible.
In Acting Black, Willie situates the personal stories of her own experience and those of her interviewees within a review of university policies regarding race. She offers suggestions for improvement for both White and Black universities seeking to make their campuses truly multicultural. In the tradition of The Agony of Education, Willie captures the painful dilemmas and ugly realities African Americans face on campus.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Acting Black: College, Identity, and the Performance of Race (Paperback) Leave the dichotomies behind! Too many people think that there are only two college types: small liberal arts colleges and huge state universities. The author emphasizes that Black students can feel very comfortable at mid-sized schools. She hypothesizes that Black Northwestern alums would feel like she did about her tiny alma mater. That was not the case. Schools where Blacks make up a "critical mass," as she says, are comfortable environments even if Blacks don't make up a large percentage of the student body. I was soooooo feeling that! My parents almost refused to allow me to go to a prestigious mid-sized school because my oldest sister had a bad time at a tiny school. For all Black teens whose parents assume they can only thrive at huge state schools, please hand this book to your parents and memorized those terms: "mid-sized" and "critical mass"! This book's title may also be deceptive. Among educators, "acting black" is a term to describe African-American students' actions which have an oppositional stance toward schools. Whether at Northwestern or Howard, none of the alums said they refused to study or skipped classes in order to prove they were Black. This book really compares what Howard and Northwestern Black alums say about racial matters as they intersected with their college choices, college experiences, and life after graduation. Now I'm thinking of the Black female character on "Daria" who wanted to attend a Black college though her parents, Black college alums, wanted the opposite. I imagine that many talented students, especially in the Chicagoland area, face the tough choice between Howard or Northwestern. This book may be informative for many in that situation. After the chapter "The Ebony Tower," this book got dull to me. At that point, the author was just trying to prove to her peers that she was knowledgeable about trendy scholars and concepts in sociology. This book may be a bit dated too. The author stops interviewing alums after those who finished in the late 1980s. In this book, Northwestern Blacks say they just hung with each other. However, I knew someone in the 1990s who enjoyed Black and white scenes at that school. As large states chip away at affirmative action, more students are considering Black colleges who might not have done so in the past.