For anyone interested in developing a more complex understanding of the Black-White achievement gap, be sure to check out “Beyond Acting White” edited by sociologists Erin Horvat and Carla O’Connor.

The book’s primary purpose is to complicate our current understandings and conversations about the “acting white” phenomenon, or the the belief that Blacks underperform in school out of fear that their academic success will undermine social relationships (what anthropologists call “fictive kinships”) due to the perception that they are acting white. This theory, which has become the equivalent of an urban legend , has dominated recent conversation about Black youth within the public sphere. For example, Bill Cosby and Barack Obama have both referred to this theory in their critiques of the Black poor (Note: Check out Michael Eric Dyson’s wonderful book “Is Bill Cosby Right?” for a brilliant and thorough deconstruction of Cosby’s ridiculous commentary).

Unfortunately, these popular (and academic) appeals to “acting white” theory fail to recognize or willfully ignore the lack of empirical support and theoretical precision surrounding acting white discourse. In “Beyond Acting White,” Horvat and O’Connor assemble a top notch cast of educational researchers who examine the contours, complexities, and contradictions of the “acting white” phenomenon. In this well-organized and timely book, the contributors demonstrate the need to avoid essentializing black identities and experiences, as well as the critical significance of examining particular schooling contexts, in order to better understand Black educational acheivement.

This is a must-read!!!!