Identity And Race In Acting White, By Roland G. Fryer

Imagine the world in a state of “world peace” where identity and race are thrown out of the equation. The truth is, it’s nearly impossible for there to be “world peace” because the history of the slaves will always create controversy that will bring up debates about race and identity and that someone will claim that they are being discriminated by a different race. Roland G. Fryer, a professor of Economics at Harvard University, wrote an essay titled “Acting White” in which he tells his readers that acting white means getting good grades, speaking white, and enrolling in AP classes (Fryer 144). Fryer shows the reader that students get ridiculed for “acting white” when they shouldn’t because it is a national caveat brought up by Barack Obama.

Another writer who also jumped onto this bandwagon of identity and race is that of Tyina Steptoe, author of “An Ode to Country Music from a Black Dixie Chick” which shows that she overcomes the racial bias of being black and wanting to be a country girl. Tyina Steptoe supports Roland Fryer’s argument about “Acting White” by using Steptoe’s life story and that both authors believe that race is a construct in which society gives them a meaning such as being a cowboy and acting white. Steptoe supports Fryer’s argument that acting white is a national issue that blacks and Hispanics purposely underachieve to avoid getting scorned by telling the readers about her desire for country music, even though it was stereotyped as being a white thing to do (brought upon by the media); Steptoe is the example of Acting White in a society where racism still exists. Fryer wants his readers to understand the true meaning of acting white and the controversies that exist with this phrase. For example, Fryer writes that “the term has become a slippery, contentious phrase that is used to refer to a variety of unsavory social practices and attitudes and whose

Fryer writes that acting white is slippery because slippery is a good word to describe the issue of identity and race. Whenever one talks about the issues of race and equality, one has to be wary of the audience to not offend people. Bring this topic back to Steptoe, she would respond by saying that her friend “Jerome goes to a Protestant private school where everyone listened to country music, regardless of race” (Steptoe 423). Steptoe uses her friend to indicate that in a private school with less diversity, everyone has the same interests and identity and race disappear. Fryer would respond by showing his findings on students GPA’s and popularity which was taken in a diverse public school. For example, Fryer found out that “As the GPA of black students increase beyond the level of 3.5, they tend to have fewer and fewer friends…Along with Hispanics, they also lose fewer and fewer friends after an increases past a 2.5 GPA” (Fryer 148). Fryer uses this as evidence of acting white because the higher GPA whites have, the more friends they have unlike Hispanics and blacks. The only reason why blacks and Hispanics have this problem is because their peers criticize them for “acting white”. The theory of acting white is that blacks and Hispanics purposely to do the