You might think any kid who can excel in school would have a few fans cheering him on, but for many black students across the country, academic achievement is equivalent to community betrayal. “[Other students] feel they’re supposed to be cool, and cool is not supposed to be making good grades in school,” reports a Norfolk, Virginia newspaper article from 2006, quoting Courtney Smith, who became a journalism major at Norfolk State. She didn’t care that the other students said she thought she was white and better than them. She just wanted to excel, but what does “acting white” have to do with that?
This idea, that some black students believe they have better things to do than to study hard, is the subject of Stuart Buck’s book, Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation, released this week from Yale University Press. The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming, and studies back it up. The idea of “acting white” abounds within evenly integrated schools. Where students are mostly white or mostly black, Buck says they are more-or-less forced to get along, but in schools with black vs. white student ratios that are close to even, black students tend to define themselves against the academic achievers.
Buck’s presentation of the groupthink dynamic makes the book for me. It’s fascinating to read how group psychology can emerge wherever young people can be divided, regardless the meaning of the groups. Instinctively, people will favor their group over other groups, even when there’s no intrinsic strength in their group. It’s us vs. them, whoever they are. That’s the dynamic at play when black students accuse other black students of “acting white.” Humans are tribal, Buck observes, and homophily or friendship with those like you is strong within races and ethnicity groups. I think it’s fairly strong among political parties too.
When the desegregation of schools took place, black children were thrust into new schools with new teachers and principals who were all white. They didn’t feel they were upgrading to better facilities. They felt they were being ushered to the white schools. The contrast forced the students to compare themselves with each other and identify with their own group. If their group held mostly low grades, then keeping those grades helped maintain your status as a member.
Buck reports an example of this taken from the Washington Post, 1986:

Journalist Leah Latimer notes that in her black school growing up, “My classmates and I never acknowledged racial stereotypes because we never fully realized that we were different. Different from what? Virtually everyone was Black, and our interests and characters were as varied as those of any other part of the population. In the security of the all-Black environment, not having to worry about ‘being a credit to our race,’ we were free to be successes or failures, winners or losers, bookworms or all-night partyers. We got all the honors and all the demerits.”
But after integration, Latimer says, race became “a burden, a limit,” in which black students’ overwhelming focus had become emphasizing their “Black” identity. After integration, too many black students “don’t do things like joining the French club or playing the violin” because “they are too busy being only one thing—Black.”

Is there a way out of this mess? Buck offers some ideas for consideration, humbly admitting they are only educated suggestions. 1. Recruit black teachers, even by reforming the teacher certification process. Black teachers can reach black students. Buck writes, “A black teacher noted that the white principal of the school approved [an L.A. high school] program when he realized ‘that as African Americans we could say things to these kids that he as a white man couldn’t.’” That applies to many educational situations. 2. Be open to homogenous schools, all boys and all black. Research has shown black young men have learned very well when the identity politics described in this book are removed. 3. Consider how to make academic success less personal and more competitive. Buck notes that we all expect athletes to give their all for the whole school’s success. When one star player wins a game, the whole school believes they won with him. They see themselves as part of the school team, rallying against the other school. If academic achievement could be seen in the same light, we may overcome any charges of “acting white.”