Beyond Acting White: Reframing the Debate on Black Student Achievement

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 264 pages
• Published by: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. February 28, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0742542734
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0742542730
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 12 ounces

Product Description
Beyond Acting White broadens the extant conversation on the Black-White achievement gap that has been dominated by the notion that Blacks underperform in school because they fear (being accused of) acting white. The authors elucidate the limitations of this explanation by presenting new research that theorizes race as a social phenomenon, unmasks the heterogeneity of the Black experience, and contends with the specifics of social context in the culture and organization of schools and communities.

Reader Reviews
A researcher named John Ogbu theorized that Black American students don't excel in school because they find it a way of having their Blackness stripped. He also theorized that other Black students accuse strong Black students of "selling out" and explains why foreign Blacks seem to outperform native Blacks. This book chips away at some of his ideas. BUT KNOW THAT IT DOES NOT DETONATE THEM. This collection of researchers points to many things. Why do some Black students still excel despite the taunting? Why do some Black students cheer on other Blacks who perform well in school? Does Ogbu's theory fall flat if gender, immigration status, or type of school gets taken into account? Why do some Black students have an anti-school attitude and then revert away from it? Researchers find instances where West Indian and African American students motivate each other, rather than just assume the West Indian students will excel when the other group will not. A researcher notes that Black students say "acting white" is not about good grades, but about adopting Valley Girl dialects and white students' fashion styles. Every famous thinker has their ideas challenged. It happened to Freud, Catherine MacKinnon, Marx, W.E.B. DuBois, etc. This book points to ways in which Ogbu may have been incorrect, but it also never says he was entirely wrong. High-achieving students so say other Blacks think they "act white." Black students interviewed in this book almost never say, "There is no such thing as 'acting white.'" No one ever denies that on average foreign Blacks seem to like school and excel at it better than longstanding Black Americans. This book never says or can prove that Ogbu was absolutely wrong. Like many anthologies, this book can seem uneven. I absolutely loved Prudence Carter's chapter "Intersecting Identities." I thought the weakest chapter was "The Making of a 'Burden'" by Karolyn Tyson. This book only has seven body chapters. This can be seen as extensive, but it also felt kinda scant to me. At one point, the editors mentioned that Ogbu has passed away. However, I don't recall them ever saying if he was an African immgrant. Ogbu is not a typical name in the US. Did this scholar have direct African ancestry or was he an Afrocentric Black American who adopted an African name? Many position themselves as more "objective" or "scholarly" if they only mention a writer's words and not her or his identity. I still wonder if Ogbu thought, "Foreign Blacks differ from domestic ones. And I know because I am a foreign Black." Or did he think, "Even as a foreign Black deemed 'smart' compared to native Blacks, I think it's funky and unjust how my group is positioned as 'better' than the other group." I would have liked to know more about Ogbu's identity or biography.