ABSTRACT
Acting White and fear of acting White have become common terms among those who investigate the well-being of students of color in the United States. An early published use of the term acting White appeared in 1970 in the context of discussion groups that included both White and Black students (McCardle & Young, 1970). The Black students held a goal of achieving equal rights and opportunities without “acting White.” For them acting White meant to “become more inhibited, more formal, or to lack ‘soul’ ” (p. 137). Note that academic achievement was not named as a marker of acting White. The students felt that acting White would result in alienation from their peer group. In two 1994 Wall Street Journal articles and in a book, journalist Ron Suskind described avoidance of academic achievement and accusations of acting White in a grim Washington, DC high school (Suskind, 1994a, 1994b, 1998). Peshkin and White (1990) also encountered fear of acting White in a northern California high school. For example, one student they interviewed said, “Sometimes, I have to change and act White; sometimes, I have to act Black. Say I go downtown talking like I am now. They will just stare at me, sayin’, ‘look at the nigger trying to act White. What’s wrong with him? I ought to go poke him in his head’ ” (p. 26). Educators are interested in fear of acting White because of its potential influence on academic achievement. If avoiding acting White means not listening to heavy metal music and not wearing khakis, educators see no problem. If avoiding acting White means not trying hard in school or avoiding good grades in school, educators see a major problem. Some investigators have reported that avoiding acting White does mean avoiding high achievement. For example, Suskind (1998) described an attempt by high school administrators in Washington, DC to induce academic effort by paying $100 for straight-A performance in any of the year’s four marking periods. Winners had to collect their checks at school assemblies. After a few such assemblies, “The jeering started. It was thunderous, ‘Nerd!’ ‘Geek!’ ‘Egghead!’ And the harshest, ‘Whitey!’ . . . The honor students were hazed for months afterward. With each assembly, fewer show up” (p. 3).
