"Acting White," "Blackness," and Education

Black students' fear of being accused of acting white has been offered as one reason for the achievement gap between black and white students. This thesis places the debate over Fordham and Ogbu's acting white hypothesis into the context of racial authenticities as a way to explain the contradictory conclusions of the research. Racial authenticity is then problematized using Paul Gilroy's denunciation of race presented in Against Race. The claims to blackness Gilroy finds in black popular culture along with representations of acting white are illustrated in Disney's High School Musical. Lastly, the call to give up race is situated within the context of educational research.Master of Art