Buck traces the phenomenon to desperation in the 50s and 60s. "Black schoolchildren, now dispersed into formerly all-white schools, suddenly had to deal with unfriendly classmates on a day-to-day basis. School was no longer a place where black children could avoid interacting with racist people." (p. 4) Therefore, in order to maintain solidarity with their few black classmates, smart black students learned to slow down and regress in their grades lest they be accused of siding up to the enemy and "acting white."
While this theory sounds plausible on its face, Buck spends most of the book documenting its existence. Early on he states, "The evidence supporting the 'acting white' these is fairly robust: We have over a dozen scholarly studies from the 1970s to 2008 confining that the 'acting white phenomenon does happen, while the studies that are supposed to disprove the 'acting white' are fewer and less reliable." (p. 25) Apparently there has been backlash to this theory contending that it seems to have as its premise that black students don't care about academic achievement. That the gap between black and white students is more properly, in fact, only, explained by the presence of racism, not by social choices students make.
While Buck does not discount other explanation of the black/white academic gap, he plainly states, "We know that there is a large achievement gap that does not fully disappear even when you look at the most advantaged and wealthy black students being taught by good teachers in good schools. We know that 'acting white' exists to some extent. And we know the peers have a strong effect on how adolescents behave, both in school and elsewhere." (p. 40) Therefore Buck sets out to prove its existence, determine just how large the effect is, and where it came from.
Buck does extensive research into black attitudes towards education prior to legal desecration and fails to find even one example of the accusation of "acting white" when a black student succeeds. In fact it was the contrary. Black people, having been deprived so long of good education with slavery and Jim Crow, actually placed a very high value on education. The smartest students tended to be the most popular. Teacher and Principals were highly respected. In fact, scholars "are careful to note that [while] they do not romanticize segregation itself, they point out that there were many black segregated schools that offered a good education, that made black children feel at home, and that encouraged black children to pursue education with passion." (p. 56) No one argues that we should return to segregation, however, it appears that under that system, blacks were able to create some well-run, tight-knit schools that served the community well. In fact, some of these school offered Classical Education of the type offered to the Founding Fathers. And many black families and students sought out that kind of rigorous education.
With official desegregation policies in place, "black schools all across America were closed or drastically redesigned... As a result, the safe and sheltering environment of black schools—once the center of the black community—disappeared. In their place was the integrated school, which was more unfriendly to black students, and less likely to feature black role models of academic success. As a result, black students become alienated from the world of school. The began to think of the school as a 'white' institution." (p. 74) This is a heart-breaking tragedy in which well-meaning policies were put in place with disastrous affects. Black students were ripped from their safe, nurturing school, full of loving teachers, mentors, and supporters, to a place where rabid racists make it more than clear that the students were not welcome and didn't belong. Is it any wonder that black students believed what they were being told? These black students largely did not feel part of the new schools, where they no longer felt at home, and began to withdraw into themselves.
Unfortunately desegregation was put into place in a fashion almost designed to hurt black students, parents, teachers, and principals. While some areas postponed it as long as possible, they would occasionally build brand new black schools to show that separate could, in fact, be equal. These new schools were a source of pride and community to the blacks they served. Yet when finally forced to integrate, no whites wanted to attend a black school. The integration only went one direction. Some of the brand new schools were demolished or decommissioned. The black teachers and principals were often fired. Few white schools wanted or needed the black teachers. And while sometimes there was an effort to include black principals in the new system, often they were passed over and demoted over time. The black students were sent to multiple schools, well outside of their neighborhoods in many cases. Seeing few familiar faces, and facing daily harassment from teachers as well as students, the ostracized new students had to stick together. It was social survival. Black role models, mentors, and counselors simply disappeared.
From the white teachers and administrators perspective, they had a very hard needle to thread. The fact was that often the black schools were inferior. Understandably, the black students often arrived on campus behind their peers. Black schools often did not receive quality materials or the best teachers. Their buildings were often dilapidated. They simply did not have the resources the white schools had. When the black students arrived, significantly behind, they were grouped into remedial classes. This painted a stark picture of what the white parents and educators feared. The blacks couldn't keep up. If a black student happened to be particularly bright and was able to compete at a high level, she would often be one of only one or two black students in the class. This further stigmatized and isolated the student, who felt cut off from everything familiar. A teacher who may have been sympathetic to the new black students could also compound the problem by patronizing the black students and fail to hold them to the same high standards to which she held the others.
One black educator remarked, "Black kids are not hungry now... They don't hunger and thirst for education. And the reason they don't hunger is because nobody tells them that they need to hunger and thirst for education. Once they went into the integrated situation there was no one pushing them." (p. 111)
Furthermore, discipline became an issue. If a black student was punished for misbehaving, the student could always point to racism as the cause. In an all black school, parents backed up teachers and administrators because they knew them and they knew the school was doing what was best for their child. In the integrated schools, this trust was destroyed. It hardly mattered if the black student was actually guilty, too often racism played a role in discipline and having that as an easy excuse affected both blacks and whites.
The heart of Buck's book is stories told by those that lived it. One woman said, "In our segregated neighborhoods and schools we didn't feel deprived, we didn't even know that we lacked self-esteem, we were happy and secure in our all-black neighborhoods and our all-black schools. We felt that we belonged, hell, we did belong. There was no fear of trying to join the band or the drill team, or of trying out for cheerleader." (p. 129) Story after story tells the same narrative. Desegregation introduced a destabilizing effect on black students that reverberates until today. Although Buck makes clear that he not arguing for a return to segregation, the people he talks to express a painful nostalgia for a time gone by when black communities experienced real pride in their educational achievements. For many of these students, being black became a burden. For the first time, they didn't look like their classmates, teachers, and administrators. Being black became an important identity. Acting in a way, that is "acting white," directly undercut this new identity. In heart-breaking story after heart-breaking story adults recall a lost world full of high hopes and dashed dreams.
The critics of Buck's theory believe that it cannot be true. If black students intentionally forgo educational opportunities, that would indicate an inexcusable form of stupidity. However, Buck shows repeatedly that it is not stupidity that causes a student to fear the "acting white" label. It is a form of rational self-preservation. However, despite schools returning to largely segregated schools with the end of forced segregation, the attitude has been born and bred and remains in the water, so to speak. Gifted black students have internalized the idea that to act in a way different from the majority of their peers is to reject their peers and have their peers in turn reject them. That is simply too high a hurdle for most students. In fact, the more the black community feels beleaguered and oppressed, but more important it becomes to stick together. Therefore any outlier has to be punished with social ostracism a the least.
Buck finishes up with the most unsatisfying part of the book: What Can Be Done. Honestly, he offers a feeble "not much." He believes sex-segregated schooling might help. Possibly competition between schools instead of individual grades. These would help for more community within the school leading the black identity to take on a less pronounced role. No matter what, it's a mess and we are currently heading in the wrong direction.
