ipl-logo

Thompson Ford's How To Understand Acting White

600 Words3 Pages

One of the most strived for things in life is academic excellence however the path to it is never easy. Author Thompson Ford’s article “How To Understand Acting White” outlines Stuart Bucks arguments about the irony of desegregation in education. A separate essay written by, Alfred Lubrano, “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts” has similar ironies about the average college student. If Ford was to read Lubrano’s essay, Ford would come to a more complex conclusion by incorporating arguments and concepts from Lubrano’s essay. Ford may utilize Lubrano’s essay to expand on certain concepts such as the proximity effect, socioeconomics, and the level of education in top tier schools to further explain the “acting white” phenomenon from his own article. Ford’s usage of Lubrano’s points on the proximity effect to elaborate on his conclusion. Lubrano gives a flashback saying, “Me mimicking my professors thoughts..” Ford can use that to explain the discouragement and hostility that …show more content…

Ford argues “Today's black underclass may not be as poor as many blacks were in the 1950s, but its isolation from the mainstream and from positive role models is actually worse.” This shows that there is in fact a correlation with social and economic structure in the negligence of education towards black students.” Lubrano says “They feel pressure from other working class friends to not participate and are told that they are being educated is effeminate and irrelevant” Ford cakn use Lubranos comparison between blue-collar kids and white-collar kids, where the black community would represent the blue-collar workers (working class) and the white community would represent white-collar workers (middle class). This argument could help frame Fords point on whites being the exclusive domain in the mainstream

Show More
Related

  • Acting White: The Social Price Paid By Ronald G. Fryer

    161 Words  | 1 Pages

    The “acting white” theory is a term most commonly used on minorities (precisely African Americans), where they are accused of “acting white” based on having characteristics of white people. This emphasis of acting white focuses on a black person betraying their own culture by getting good grades in school. Research has been done by Ronald G. Fryer, who wrote a research paper called, “Acting White: The Social Price Paid by the Best and Brightest Minority Students” agrees with this theory and has come up with a way to prove this theory to be true. Fryer tries to prove this point by basing this theory off of a students’ GPA and popularity in school. Another person who has done research, Ivory A. Toldson, disagrees with Fryer and the theory, that

    Read More

  • HBCU Research Paper

    157 Words  | 1 Pages

    Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States founded primarily for the education of African Americans. Prior to the mid-1960s, HBCUs were virtually the only institutions open to African Americans due to the vast majority of predominantly white institutions prohibiting qualified African Americans from acceptance during the time of segregation. As such, they are institutional products of an era of discrimination and socially constructed racism against African Americans (Joseph, 2013). Successfully, millions of students have been educated in spite of limited resources, public contempt, accreditation violations, and legislative issues. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss

    Read More

  • Summary Of Tale Of Two Schools: Race And Education On Long Island

    842 Words  | 4 Pages

    The video “Tale of Two Schools: Race and Education on Long Island” presents David and Owen, two African-American students with similar backgrounds and grades who attend two different high schools in separate districts that have drastically different access to resources, community support, income, etc. Wyandanch Memorial High School is located in a poor district, while South Side High School is located in Rockville Center which is a more affluent and diverse district. The effects of the districts having varying levels of access to quality resources and diversity is exemplified throughout the video with regards to the way the students interact with each other, their grades, and their careers after high school. The lack of resources of Wyandanch

    Read More

  • The Price We Pay Andre Jenkins Analysis

    440 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though white privilege has been prominent throughout many American institutions, it is especially prevalent within

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Tally's Corner

    1311 Words  | 6 Pages

    On top of this, he argues that the white middle class are unrelenting with their methods of depriving black advancement in American society. Knowledge of this incites many blacks to occupy dead-end jobs, or to settle for mediocrity in the face of adversity. A large number of black males in America find themselves forced to take jobs that offer no security, or socioeconomic growth. He also contends that many blacks are not very literate and therefore left behind in cultural revolutions like the information age. For twelve months between 1962 and 1963, Liebow and a group of researchers studied the behavior of a group of young black men who lived near and frequently hung around a street corner in a poor black neighborhood in downtown Washington, D.C. Liebow’s participant observation revealed the numerous obstacles facing black men on a day-to-day basis, including the structural and individual levels of racial discrimination propagated by whites in society.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Steinberg's The Ethnic Myth

    1417 Words  | 6 Pages

    Leaving the only options for an ethnicities high crime rate and low educational success to cultural values or biological inferiority instead of a by-product of economic disadvantage. Continuing to state that the history of racism has done undo-able damage to cultural integrity and community among blacks with information such as “…deterioration of the Negro society…is from deterioration of the Negro family…with the source of weakness being the Negro community…” (Moynihan, 120). Implying that society provides opportunities for class mobility and it is black cultural institutes that are

    Read More

  • Racism In Mark Lamont Hill's 'Nobody'

    856 Words  | 4 Pages

    Overtime all things change and develop into new forms, this is even true for racism. Mark Lamont Hill’s “Nobody” takes us through the history of black Americans in the U.S in relation to state. Moreover, he reveals the storyline within the nation that has consistently marked majority of minorities as expendable, products and as nobodies. Being that the book is only around 200 pages, we only get at the surface of what Mr. Hill is analysing. Nonetheless, he expertly maneuvers through the U.S’s muddy history to display the role of the State in keeping this “nobody” identity on black Americans.

    Read More

  • Critical Race Theory In Higher Education

    1041 Words  | 5 Pages

    However, in the classroom I made assumptions about our students, such as believing college was the natural course for all of them after high school, and that is was always a destination, not an option. It was not until later that I realized how my identity as a White, upper-class individual contributed to my epistemologies and

    Read More

  • Summary Of Campus Racism 101 By Nikki Giovanni

    498 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the piece “Campus Racism 101” by Nikki Giovanni, the concept of ignorance is evaluated and advice to minority students is given. Giovanni, a professor at Virginia Tech, describes the struggles that might, and most likely will, impact minority students and addresses the stereotypical mindset that those students, and Giovanni herself, will encounter while on campus and in the “real world”. Giovani uses imagery to set the stage of her piece “Campus Racism”, as well as logical and backed by real world experience advice to students to help minority students succeed in predominately white colleges. Giovanni first uses imagery to set the stage for stereotypes and the issue of racism on college campuses. At first this seems irrelevant as she describes a young man who is “Too cool for school.

    Read More

  • James Loewen The Land Of Opportunity Summary

    515 Words  | 3 Pages

    When students are unaware of the history of social class, they begin to believe false information, such as, poor people deserve to be poor. Loewen does a great job of pointing out student’s misunderstanding of social status and strongly believes that it is the high school text books to

    Read More

  • The Segregation Of Schools In The 1950's

    733 Words  | 3 Pages

    This lead to black adults being less educated than the majority of white adults. “A white student who completed the eighth grade was almost certainly far ahead of the black child at the same grade level,” (Peter Irons). White students were taught more. The learning

    Read More

  • Hidden Intellectualism Summary

    762 Words  | 4 Pages

    Levine claims that these children are looking up to gang members and drug dealers as a way of life, knowing that their are no educational requirements to fulfill these positions (20). These poor students are simply seeing school as a must do for the time being, and not seeing the the value of the education they could be receiving if they had a better role model to look up to. Similarly, Graff asserts that students are not connecting with Shakespeare or the French Revolution, these students do not value the information because it does not pertain to them; However, sports, fashion or dating interests these students and have values to them (245). Schools and colleges are not connecting the dots.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Three Reasons College Still Matters By Andrew Delbanco

    869 Words  | 4 Pages

    “3 Reasons College Still Matters” by Andrew Delbanco 3) “Surely, every American college ought to defend this waning possibility, whatever we call it. And an American college is only true to itself when it opens its doors to all - the rich, the middle, and the poor - who have the capacity to embrace the precious chance to think and reflect before life engulfs them. If we are all serious about democracy, that means everyone.” 4) In this part of the writing Andrew Delbanco tries to persuade his audience by using the pattern of logic that agrees with the overall argument but also considers another striking point of view to strengthen the argument (While these arguments are convincing, they must also consider…).

    Read More

  • The Color Line Racism

    1740 Words  | 7 Pages

    The audacity of whites came their various oppressions before landing in America, Douglass states, “that they had conquered the sea, and had conquered the land, but that it remained for them to conquer their prejudices,” (Douglass, 568). Educated philosophers preach the Negro inferior to the white man, Du Bois states, “Many Americans social philosophers still persist in ascribing to Negro inferiority,” (Du Bois, 42). In today it is not directly stated, but rather suggested. White is still ideal, from personal experience, some private schools in Washington D.C have a minority cap to only allow an exact number of students of color. The schools where more students of color were allowed had funding issues, thus making it difficult to have the latest tools and labs to teach in.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racial Inequality In Education

    733 Words  | 3 Pages

    Martha Peraza SOC 3340 Inequality in Education California State University, Bakersfield Abstract In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race.

    Read More

More about Thompson Ford's How To Understand Acting White

Open Document