Professor finds that students’ fear of ‘acting white’ doesn’t lower grades

A Pitt professor refuted the claim that the idea of “acting white” discourages some black… A Pitt professor refuted the claim that the idea of “acting white” discourages some black students from reaching their full potential.

Amanda Lewis, an associate professor of sociology at Emory University, gave a lecture at the School of Social Work Conference Center last week in the Cathedral of Learning. She said there is still a disparity in graduation rates, test scores and overall achievements between white students and black and Latino students.

Lewis said she is currently researching the topic of the lecture, which was called “Despite the Best Intentions: Why Racial Inequality Persists in Good Schools,” for a book she is writing. She and her research partner, Harvard University professor John Diamond, collected data from more than 200 interviews and surveys with students at a high school with great racial diversity, a high amount of monetary resources and high graduation rates and test scores.

The statistics showed the school to be at a higher level of achievement than other schools in the area. However, when the results were analyzed demographically, black and Latino students seemed to lag behind white students in overall grade point averages, standardized test scores and graduation rates.

A model, titled “Opposition Culture,” has been proposed by some sociologists who say minorities who came to the United States involuntarily — through slavery or colonization — have fostered an anti-education mindset over the years toward dominant institutions, such as schools, Lewis said.

Lewis said prominent figures, including President Barack Obama, who have proposed that there exists an “acting white” dilemma among some children in which highly achieving black students are discouraged from pursuing this continued success and are accused of “acting white” by their peers.

According to her research, there is little evidence backing this claim. Furthermore, Lewis’ research found that black and white students at the high-achieving high school spent the same amount of time on homework and wanted to go to college at the same rates. Teasing among students existed in the school, but it was not on the basis of race. However, Lewis found that 65 percent of black students in the school believed that being black meant they had to work harder to succeed.

Lewis, who received her doctorate degree from the University of Michigan in 2000, researches race and ethnic relations, urban schooling and social inequality. About 70 people attended her lecture.