Summary

This article compares the in-school development and identity formation of African-American students and White students. White, middle-class norms are consistently forced upon African-American students, and they are frequently judged by these differing expectations. Though these students’ lives are frequently characterized by impoverished communities and urban environments, the stressful lives of these students are rarely taken into consideration by the educational community.

 

For these students, school and culture at home provide competing standards for the students to follow. Structural racism, which is the devaluation of minority groups through sytematic, institutionalized processes, manifests itslef in education across America. For example, African-American students are taught that their cultural values are less important than following the white, middle-class academic example provided for them at school. This forms two specific results. The first is the misinterpretation of minority students’attitudes , which often develop for survival in difficult circumstances due to the student’s neighborhood, family life, or social norms. These characteristics are misunderstood by teachers and other adults to be behavioral problems and improper development. The second result is the false attribution of success. When these students succeed, it is not usually attributed to the resiliance and social development of the student within the minority but as a result of their interaction and influence from the white standard.

 

Racial stereotyping from white superiority into minority inferiority effects these students, as well. The differences between whites and Blacks have often been exaggerated over the racial differences between whites and other groups. This victimizes the African-American students and focuses on their differences above all others. Therefore, many African-American students feel pressured to “Act White,” or to conform to the cultural and educational expecations of the white standard. These standards include normal self-processes (such as development in regard to age), high self-efficacy, a value on achievement in school, and a desire for good grades. All of these are based upon the white model of these values. However, this is often not the case for African-American students, and many feel the need to act against the white assumption. They desire the exact opposite of all of the standards listed above and strive to oppose the expectations. Not only do students desire to follow their own cultural and social constructs, but they also believe themselves to be the opposite of the white standard.

 

This translates into poor motivation for African-American students who feel the pressure of the “Acting White” assumption. This can manifest itself in students striving to do poor on tests, having extremely low self-efficacy, and becoming disinterested in school altogether. Motivational strategies are greatly needed in order to alter these cultural backlashed within minority students. These students must be taught that having high achievment within the classroom does not draw them away from their ethnicity or make them any more white.

 

Example from Hispanic culture in Greeley, CO

While I observed at Franklin Middle School, I helped tutor some students who had been absent or had poor grades in the class. For one such male student, the only motivation present to attain good grades was to remain eligible to play sports. This student had a 57 percent in the class that I was observing, and he only needed to do three workbook pages in order to raise his grade to a D. I went out of the class with him in order to administer the activity instructions and ensure that he completed the assignment. As we sat in the hallway, the student began to look around and refused to read the textbook page required to finish his work. I asked him why he was not getting to work. He said that the work was too hard, so I told him that he needed to do assignments like these to prepare for high school. He told me that he did not even think that he would attend high school, because he would drop out if he started to do bad. I told him that he needed to graduate high school in order to get a good job or go to college and be able to make money when he was older. However, he told me that he did not care if he made money, and that no one else in his family had gone to college and very few had finished high school, so why should he?

 

After I considered the student’s argument, I told him that I though he could finish the assignment in ten minutes. He looked at me, surprised and shocked, and told me that not even the smartest student in his class could finish it that fast. (The assigment was a two-page regurgitation of bold terms in the textbook. It was only comprised of six questions, all of which could be copied word-for-word from the text in front of the student.) I said that I would time him, and so he got to work. He answered the first two questions, and then he turned around and looked into another classroom. Instead of reprimanding him, I just watched the student. He never made eye contact with me, and he continued to do anything but the work. I looked back down at the paper that I was reading and told him to start working. After five more minutes of looking around, he started working again. He finished the rest within five more minutes, but his total time ended up being around fifteen minutes. I asked him why he did not just work straight through the workbook, because, if he had, he would have finished in less than ten minutes. He replied, “I told you that I couldn’t finish it in ten minutes. I’m not as smart as you; I just want to finish this so that I am eligible.”

 

This student felt extremely threatened by my assumption that he could do the assignment well. He felt that he should not be able to be good at his school work, although he was very good at it and had no trouble finding the right answers.

 

 

This article talks about students "acting white," about how it is assumed that African Americans would do better if they would work with a Euro-centric cultural value system. They find that this is not the best thing for us to expect. The minority youth are denied a culturally specific normative development perspective of their own.

 

A study on African American secondary students showed high self-esteem and achievement goals in conjunction with high Afro-centricity. This proves that teachers need to have a better understanding of and to institute better teaching strategies for African American youth and minority youth in general.

 

The article says that the national media suggests that youth of color, specifically African Americans, do not value education. This view is culturally stereotyping in its failure to acknowledge the role of solidly entrenched social stereotyping in the school adjustment and coping requirements of African Americans.

 

W. E. E. Du Bois stated that "the heavy burden of the 20th century for Americans would be the issue of the color line." 95 years later Leon Higginbotham stated that "the problem with the 21st century is not recognizing the consequences of racism." The acting white neglects the consequences of stereotyping for the people being prejudiced towards (ethnic minority).

 

The two hypotheses that were examined through the article were (1) normative views about self-processes are expected for both male and female African American adolescents (2) adolescents demonstrate traditional and positive values concerning self-efficacy in which high academic performance is valued and poor performance is devalued.

 

To conclude here is a quote that was quoted in the article. "I thought it was my job to teach those kids who 'get it' and to 'refer out' those kids for remediation who 'do not get it'."

 

Summary #2:

 

The article "Identity and School Adjustment: Revisiting the "Acting White" Assumption" by Spencer, Noll, Stoltzfus, and Harpalani expressed many thought provoking insights in how minority students are educated and the myths that seem to prevail in education today. The middle income White is held as the standard those minority children are held to and from which they deviate.

 

According to the article often researchers analyze adaptations in an ethnic group's culture thus promoting and incomplete analysis of youths adaptive responses in various contexts and situations. These perspectives ignore the psychological disadvantages that accompany developmental stages, especially adolescence. Educating minority youth is held up to normal standards without consideration of impoverished neighborhoods and dysfunctional family situations.

 

The effects of parenting play a large role in the lives of these children whose lives are subject to unclear expectations from schools. The "acting White" theory presented by Fordham and Ogbu (1986) has been made highly visible in the national media. The view plays into the cultural stereotyping that is so detrimental to African-American students and other minorities.

The main question addressed in this research is to what degree to adolescents perceive their own self-worth as a learner or whether they accept the assumptions, expectations and stereotypes presumed of others.

 

The impact of culture plays an important role in the experiences of minority youth.  Unfortunately the impact of culture has been applied in urban contexts without regard to parental and community support and challenges faced by young people. When analysts examine the gap in achievement between African American youth and White youth the attention is given to the immensity of the gap, rather than the conflicting messages regarding the nature of self as a member of a particular cultural environment.

 

The article likens structural racism and achievement to and undiagnosed cancer. These undiagnosed problems result in structural obstacles with regard to family, neighborhood and workplace combined with the larger setting of social, economic and political forces that the students will have to face in American society. Yet another factor that goes unnoticed is the resiliency of minority adolescents. When their successes ARE acknowledged the unique contributors are NOT identified or integrated into teacher training and policy considerations. The issue of racial stereotyping continues to be a factor in the lives of minority youth.  The focus of much of the research is on the attitudes of the majority and it neglects the consequences for the minorities who bear the brunt of the prejudice.

 

The article discusses the Phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory or PVEST as an alternate approach to investigating African American adolescents' achievement behavior. A positive association between high achievement and high Eurocentric (performing well in school based on extreme White belief system) values is demonstrated in the acting White theory. The data found in this research is contrary, showing that high Eurocentric values are linked to low achievement.

 

A study of 562 African American your explored the acting White hypothesis.  Achievement was measured in this study based on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.  A strong Afrocentric cultural identity was not found in this research, but more of a blurred cultural meaning through fad-like cultural icons.

The importance of the school experience of receiving an academic honor resulted in very good responses from both boys and girls. The overall findings of this research showed a clear value for school and high academic performance. High-achieving African American youth are not only not identifying with the acting White theory but have an increased understanding of its irrelevance of comparing Blacks to a theory that lacks meaning.