Identity and School Adjustment:

Revisiting the "Acting White" Assumption

This article, as the name implies, revisits and reexamines the assumptions and characteristics that define "acting White." The term "acting White" refers to the assumption that young students of color, particularly those of African American decent, do not care or value the importance of education. Contrary to the traditional findings of the "acting White" assumption, these researchers found that a lack of high Eurocentricity (White salience attitudes and values) is actually associated with better achievement performances.

Listed below is a table that documents traditional "acting White" assumptions as compared to the researched results.

"ACTING WHITE" ASSUMPTIONS	RESEARCHED FINDINGS
· Positive association between high achievement and high Eurocentric values	· High Eurocentric values are associated with low achievement
· High self-esteem is associated with high performance on achievement tests	· High Eurocentricity is associated with low achievement performance
· Youth with higher achievement scores have high Eurocentric identity	· Youth with higher achievement scores are more likely to have high Afrocentric identity
· High Eurocentricity scores correlates with high reflected appraisal by others	· High reflected appraisal by others are more often from the low scoring Eurocentric group

The findings of this research suggest that high-achieving African Americans fail to identify with White values, proving the "acting White" assumption false.