Dr. Rhymes Questions this Idea of "Acting White"

http://www.blackcommentator.com/100/100_cover_acting_white.html

I read about Dr. Rhymes and even emailed him. The journal is well respected and has a strong editorial board. This article seems to speak to the many conversations we are having about mult-racial classrooms or African-American achievement in our classes and honors classes.

In the article, Dr. Rhymes takes on the idea/notion that “Our black kids look down on education” say many of the black pundits, “they tease the black kids who are doing well school and say they are acting white.” Instead he argues that he has "never heard any student equating scholastic achievement with whiteness." That said, he tries to expose the "why" of such a statement; his conclusions are interesting:

• All other things being equal, [African-American students] would prefer to be on the smart side of average rather than the dumb side, but intelligence counts for far less than, say, physical appearance, charisma, or athletic ability.
• when the curriculum is viewed from our social studies, history and English classes across the country; it’s easy to see how education and “whiteness” becomes inseparable.
• For example, most of the history classes (World & U.S.) focus mostly on people of European descent. Curriculum in our public schools continues to be either opposed to or indifferent about a more multi-cultural emphasis. Only a handful of our public school students know more than the customary African-American figures (Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman etc.) displayed in our curriculum.
• English Literature courses may devote a few weeks a year (usually around February) to authors such as Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, James Baldwin or Toni Morrison; hardly enough time for the average student to become familiar with African-American history or culture.
• According to Harvard’s Civil Rights Project, African-American students are only half as likely as whites to be placed in Honors or AP English or math classes, and 2.4 times more likely than whites to be placed in remedial classes.
• Even when African American demonstrate equal ability with their white counterparts, they are less likely to be placed in accelerated classes.
• The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics found that the number of African-American students taking the AP examinations increased from 9 to 53 per 1,000 12th graders between 1984 and 2000. However, the number of African-American students who took AP examinations in 2000 was still considerably lower than Whites (180 per 1,000). This is due, in part, to the fact that on average, schools serving mostly black and Latino students offer only a third as many AP and honors courses as schools serving mostly whites. Another little discussed actuality is that quite a few African Americans are inconspicuously steered away from Honors and AP classes and into basic and general courses. As a result, the classes that represent our best and brightest minds become decidedly white.
• Data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (2003), showed that approximately 3 million of the nation’s estimated 3.5 million k-12 teachers (public and private) are white – that translates to about 85%. Post-secondary education is slightly different; 75% (2,148,845 of a total 2,883,175) of America’s college and university educators is white.
• When an educator stands before a classroom and teaches, they are not just transmitting facts, figures and data about English, math, history etc. They are also conveying their worldview, ideas and values – either consciously or unconsciously (as a teacher I understand this all too well).
• Our thoughts carry attitudes; our attitudes carry vibes; and once that undeclared, discriminatory vibe is felt by that student of color, it can create very real barriers to their desire to learn and that teacher’s ability to teach them.
• In light of the information found in these four categories, can you at least see why an African-American student might view education (even if you don’t agree with the assertion) as being white?
• According to Ogbu: The under-achieving minorities in these countries, including blacks in the United States, all had one factor in common: They are what Ogbu calls “involuntary minorities.”
  Involuntary minorities are those who did not immigrate to a country by choice. They became minorities through enslavement, colonization or conquest, a status that continues to shape how they are treated by the dominant group and how they perceive and respond to that treatment. Involuntary minorities developed their identity in opposition to the majority group that had oppressed them. As a result, they are often suspicious of societal institutions run by the dominant group, including the schools, believing that the curriculum threatens and denigrates their heritage.
• We have appropriately expended a great amount of time and effort trying to instill in them a respect for education, but we have failed at the equally important task of making sure that the powers-that-be in education values and respects them.