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I taught Getting It Wrong to my undergrad black politics class. The book is a real tonic. --Adolph Reed, University of Pennsylvania
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For twenty years, black students have been chastised based on flawed research. Black leaders and black public intellectuals routinely claim that black students see academic achievement as “acting white.” The actual evidence for the “acting white” hypothesis, however, is meager and not at all convincing when examined carefully.
Among the flaws in the study that popularized the “acting white” hypothesis is the presumption that no white student has ever called another white student a nerd, geek or brainiac. This presumption is clearly false.
A study by the Girl Scout Research Institute shows that black and white girls experience equivalent levels of academically-oriented teasing. Forty-one percent of white girls reported that they worried about being teased for speaking or participating in class. Thirty-five percent of black girls felt the same. These results are statistically equal because the margin of error is plus or minus 7 percentage points.
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Source: Adapted from Girl Scout Research Institute, Feeling Safe: What Girls Say, 2003, 41.The proponents of the “acting white” hypothesis claim that black students experience much more academic teasing than white students, but they have never presented any direct evidence to support this assertion.
The educational researcher Ronald F. Ferguson has found that the key to popularity for black and for white students lies in having cool clothes and being funny. For both groups, scholastic achievement is not important to being popular. Black leaders and black public intellectuals have therefore been condemning black children for behaving like average American students.
Much of the concern with “acting white” has been based on a desire to address the very real achievement gap between black and white students. But while leaders have been fixated on the “acting white” hypothesis, they have neglected the real reasons for the gap.
Five Steps to Reducing the Black-White Achievement Gap
While misguided leaders have been calling for a cultural transformation to address the supposed “acting white” crisis, they have ignored far more important educational reforms:
1. Improving and expanding early childhood education. A large body of research shows that black students begin kindergarten behind white students. If we expand and improve the quality of the pre-kindergarten education received by black children we will significantly reduce the testing gap.
2. Improving teacher quality in black schools. A recent study by the Illinois Education Research Council found that 45 percent of black high school students in Illinois attended schools with the lowest teacher-quality ratings. Only 8 percent of white students attended such low teacher-quality schools. Until we eliminate the teacher-quality gap, we will have a test-score gap.
3. Providing small classes and creating small schools. Black students, who are often behind, benefit from the extra attention available in very small classes. Reductions in class size have been shown to boost black student achievement. Smaller schools have been shown to increase black students’ graduation rates.
4. Increasing school integration. While black leaders have been condemning black students based on flawed “acting white” research, America’s schools have been becoming increasingly segregated. Few black leaders have said a word about this issue. Yet historically, integration has been one means by which blacks have gained access to higher quality schools. Effective school integration can also help break down the racial stereotypes of whites and blacks.
5. Making college more affordable. Research suggests that if college were more affordable there would be higher black college enrollment and graduation rates.
It is time to address the real issues holding black students back.
For a detailed discussion of the flaws in the “acting white” research of Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu—the originators of the hypothesis—send a check or money order for $9 made out to “Thora Institute LLC” to “Flaws of ‘Acting White’,” Thora Institute LLC, P.O. Box 367, New Haven, CT 06513-0367.
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--Algernon Austin, Ph.D.
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