Can We FINALLY Stop Saying that Black People Don’t Value Education?

Nareissa's Notes
Jul 20, 2017 · 4 min read
Caption: Elizabeth Eckford braves a crowd to enter Little Rock Central High. Source: NPR.

Last week, the Pew Research Center released survey results wherein a majority of Republicans polled — 58 percent — indicated that colleges and universities have a negative effect on our nation.

In 2017, college — the place where people literally go to learn things — is a bad thing in the Republican mind. Since 86 percent of Republicans are white, apparently, a solid number of white folks do not value higher education.

This survey provides further proof that the “acting white” theory promoted by Black and white conservatives should be forever discredited and abandoned.

For the uninformed, the “acting white” theory operates as follows: Low-achieving Black youth taunt their more academically gifted peers by accusing them of “acting white.” As a result, the intelligent youth fail to achieve academic success.

If this sounds suspicious to you, it should. The theory has never been proven in any meaningful way. (See Dr. Ivory Toldson’s epic takedown of the theory here.) Yet, the myth of “acting white” endures.

The persistence of this myth is problematic for many reasons, but I’ll focus on three.

First, the “acting white” myth perpetuates a most insidious form of white supremacy. In this myth, white folks are uniformly good, smart, and hard-working — so much so that Black folks envy their superior intellect and industriousness. This knowledge motivates the jealous Black children to tear down their smart peers for “acting white” because, after all, the children know that to be Black is to be ignorant.

So, whenever someone deploys the “acting white” theory, what they are really saying — implicitly or explicitly — is that if Black kids embrace whiteness and its positive attributes, they will succeed. Conversely, their Blackness — and the laziness, stupidity, and inferiority that comes with it — must be avoided or discarded altogether.

Although it goes without saying, I’ll say it: These assumptions are incredibly racist. White people do not have a monopoly on intelligence or hard work. Any theory that is so deeply rooted in false assumptions about white superiority must be rejected.

Second, the “acting white” theory is not rooted in facts.

Contrary to what “acting white” advocates say, Black youth have positive attitudes about education. In his analysis of data on student attitudes, Dr. Toldson found that Black males were the most likely to consider high-achieving students “cool.” Moreover, 95 percent of Black girls said that they would be proud to tell their friends about their academic achievements — the highest percentage of any group. Black girls were the least likely to avoid telling friends about academic triumphs; white males were the most likely to do so. Finally, Black females were twice as likely as white males to report that their friends would support their choice to study even if it meant delaying plans to have fun.

Black people are not anti-intellectual. Black people are more likely to read than whites. Compared to whites, Black parents are twice as likely to believe that college is extremely important for their children’s futures. The number of Black and Latino students earning bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees has been steadily increasing for the past forty years.

Clearly, the data paint a far different picture than that put forward by the “acting white” mythologists.

Finally, “acting white” theory diverts our attention from the real cause of Black students’ academic woes — racism. “Acting white” didn’t keep children of color in segregated classrooms until 1954. “Acting white” didn’t make white folks fight bussing in the North or close public schools in the South. “Acting white” didn’t create racially exclusive private schools as alternatives to integrated public schools. “Acting white” didn’t make Republican politicians cut public school funding to the bone. “Acting white” didn’t cause the poverty that creates the problems that students bring into the classroom.

The “Acting white” myth, like a good NBA point guard, misdirects our attention while the real target — racism — remains untouched.

Black youth don’t need to change their attitudes toward education — but society does. When asked about barriers to attending college, Black students did not cite a fear of “acting white,” but did indicate financial concerns. Rather than blaming Black children for failing to escape a system rigged against them, we would do better to change the system. We need a structure that provides meaningful and affordable educational opportunities for all children. Until that system is in place, I encourage conservatives to stop fabricating myths that keep us from solving the very real problems caused by racism.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/racelawprof/2017/07/can-we-finally-stop-saying-that-black-people-dont-value-education.html


Originally published at lawprofessors.typepad.com.

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