Anti-Intellectualism: An African American Problem at Racialicious

Anti-Intellectualism: An African American Problem

by Guest Contributor Merq

They are proud of their ignorance.

They equate getting an education to “acting white.”

Inner-city students have to decide between being smart and being “cool.”

I’m sure you’ve read at least one of the above statements at some point over the course of the last five years. Like the “down low” frenzy of yesteryear, it’s the pummeled dead horse du jour of African-American narratives.

As a student of propaganda, its uses, and its effects, one thing that has always intrigued and sickened me about American discourse (as typified by its mainstream media) is its ability to make a phenomenon untrue or non-existent by simply ignoring it. When Paris Hilton bares her lady parts for what must be the thirtieth time, it’s still considered newsworthy. But her continued pattern of “n*gger”-calling has gone so roundly ignored that only a fraction of a population inundated with her very presence is aware that she’s done this even once. I mean, Dog the friggin’ Bounty Hunter got more column inches for his idiocy (and he genuinely thought he was black) while Hilton never even needed to roll out the standard Non-Apology Apology! I, as a black man, speak for my race (as we always seem to do in the media) when I say we wuz robbed!

In a similar vein, it tickles me to no end (or inasmuch as an assault on the ribs can be considered tickling) that America can really create this whole “Crisis in Black America” phenomenon over something as essentially American as anti-intellectualism – and get “black leaders” to cluck their tongues and rhapsodize on how “we got to do better,” even!

Yes, In case you’re wondering, I watched CNN’s “Black in America” series. Yes, I saw black folk say the same thing, and wallow in self-validating self-pity as they recall past (and present) experiences with those who deemed them “too white.” I don’t know why people hold up these folk as some sort of proof that this “tryna ack’ all white” phenomenon is actually real – there are multitudes of black males who will also tell you that black men can only aspire to being ballers or rappers, or that they have no business wearing flip-flops. Do we take them at their word simply because they’re black?

The fact is, that line of bullshit rhetoric has existed since the fight to keep the segregated Jim Crow school system intact. But as is the case with basically any stereotype that exists to denigrate black people, there will be a class of blacks only too happy to declare the validity of that message at the top of their lungs in some sadly misguided effort to prove to everyone in the (almost entirely non-black) room that they’re “not like those blacks.” I know them because I once was them.

So tell me, people, did the term “teacher’s pet” originate in black inner-city schools? How about “bookworm?” “Know-it-all,” maybe? Or “brainiac?” For decades, these words have been America’s way of shaming youngsters who express an interest in learning. I hear studies repeat, ad nauseum, that in white social groups, higher grades mean greater popularity, and I wonder where in June Cleaver’s America they conducted that study, ‘cause that isn’t the America I know.

It doesn’t end in the schoolyard, either — you want to know what epithets these kids switch to when barbs like “brainiac” start to clash with their beer guts and facial hair? Try “latte liberal.”

That’s right. A country in which “too learned to be a good leader” has become a legitimate political critique, has the nerve to accuse a single marginalized population of its society of imbibing the very poison it has spoon-fed its young for centuries.

I’m sure we all know people with “foreign” names (or “foreign” pronunciations of “American” names) who have to be forced to pronounce said names properly and overcome the fear of being deemed “pretentious.” No, I’m not talking about people like Christina Aguilera, who (as my cousin once put it) discovered a whole world of extra (rolled) rrrrrrrs in her last name as the so-called “Latin Explosion” of the late ‘90s took off. I’m talking about people scorned for not pronouncing their own names the “American” way. Is there a healthy dose of xenophobia somewhere in there? Definitely. But for the most part, there’s a sort of cultural complex that causes America at large to flare up whenever foreign tongues (particularly those tied to the romance languages) get all… languagey.

Even Gwyneth Paltrow suffered the wrath of a thousand hot pokers for referring to Anthony Hopkins, recipient of a lifetime achievement award at the 2006 Golden Globes, as something that sounded a little too close to “Antony” – the preferred pronunciation in many parts of Hopkins’ native Britain.

In fairness, we must note two things. First of all, the Gwyneth Paltrow of today is likely to be scorned in America, no matter what she does. She’s just not a particularly loved figure anymore. Secondly, many who Americanize the pronunciations of their names are more likely doing so to combat the “eternal foreigner” perception, and not necessarily for fear of reprisal for being all fancy with their name-callin’. No, Americans tend to reserve that kind of treatment for their own – it’s alright (even kinda sexy) for those foreigners to talk all foreigny. But don’t you get any uppity ideas about pronouncing their names the way their parents do.

I believe that outlook, in some circles, is deemed a symptom of the “crabs in a barrel” phenomenon. Oh, but my bad… if they aren’t black, then it doesn’t count.

Listen, folks. I’m not attacking Americans here. A lion cub will never grow into an adult coyote, regardless of his sexual role-play predilections. A people that have been raised to distrust learnedness in favor of a clichéd (and grossly inaccurate) “true grit, by the bootstraps” narrative for the founding of a great nation will remain unable to see itself as anything but right for doing so. The problem lies in blaming blacks for eating a slice of a poisoned pie that was baked (and in no small part, devoured) by mainstream America. They did it with irrational consumerism (the featured black figures in that matinee were Bill Cosby and Oprah), and now blacks are being nailed to the cross of yet another American ill.

I don’t expect this nation to acknowledge its own sickness hypocrisy anytime soon. So on behalf of all blacks in America, I’m going to borrow a page from Little Richard and say that as far as “geek,” “nerd,” and all similar terms go, black people were the originators and the innovators.

Might as well get credit for something, right?

Comments

PerceptiveReality wrote:

Nice post Merq. I enjoyed how it started out, and am glad it did not turn out to have a preachy overtone to it, But I am confused as to the direction and exact point you were trying to make. But maybe im just slow.

I guess the point I get lost at is, where you start talking about foreign names. I just dont see where that fits in to the original arguement I thought you were making. Which I am not really quite sure about in the first place.

Again, though I loved the start and the end, but those three paragraphs in the middle just lose me, and I dont really know what to take from it.

Anything from anyone, in terms a little direction, would be nice.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 6:53 am ¶
ccch wrote:

There’s a difference btw wanting to Americanise one’s name, be it in pronounciation or spelling and really this “phenomenon” of “acting white” you tried to maligned.
I grew up in Philadelphia having moved from the Caribbean with my parents and siblings and this “phenomenon” was totally rampant to the extent that my siblings and I (who spoke standardised English with a mix island and British accent) were teased, bullied and sometimes (if caught) beaten.
Score the internet on any site where many AAs frequent and you’ll read the same story as mine.

Didn’t see the show you referenced as tv’s the last on my list of interesting pastime things to do, but in my opinion, this “phenomenon” started in the 70s with the “say it loud, I’m black and proud” ridiculing of the “white infrastructure” and commenced today as our young people twisting those messages into resentment and ignorance.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 7:04 am ¶
G.D. wrote:

Good post.

In my experiences, people weren’t ‘acting white’ when they did well in school, they were more likely to be considered’acting white’ for choosing to listen to Counting Crows instead of Ice Cube (if I can date myself). That’s obviously problematic and touches on ideas of black normativity, but it’s fundamentally different than the popular assertion that ‘n****s just hate to learn!’ (*cough* Chris Rock *cough*)

“But as is the case with basically any stereotype that exists to denigrate black people, there will be a class of blacks only too happy to declare the validity of that message at the top of their lungs in some sadly misguided effort to prove to everyone in the (almost entirely non-black) room that they’re “not like those blacks.” I know them because I once was them.’”

Nail on the head. Embarassingly enough, so was I. And it’s nauseating, isn’t it? I’ll refrain from going on a rant here, but I think that a lot of Negroes actually benefit from perpetuating the idea of Shiftless Black Bogeymonster as a means to be self-congratulatory. “I’m an educated black _____.” The implication, of course, is that there’s something peculiar and noteworthy about being “educated” and “black.” They’re special and not like Them Over There.

Break me a frickin’ give.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 7:08 am ¶
Matt wrote:

Interesting post.

“[K]now-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.” - Paul Krugman.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 8:23 am ¶
atlasien wrote:

The part about foreign names fits in because the most virulent strain of American anti-intellectualism is anti-non-English-language. The hatred of Spanish, especially… is there any other country in the whole world in which second languages are so deprecated? I wonder.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 8:29 am ¶
Cynthia wrote:

Atlasien: I think most English-speaking countries have some aspect of English-superiority and therefore don’t feel that they need to know another language. Even in Canada, bilingual jobs are frequently held by francophones, because they’re more likely to be bilingual in English and French than anglophones! Not too many British people, save for immigrants and a few second or third generation Brits can claim to be fluent in other languages either.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 8:42 am ¶
Lauren wrote:

Thank you for this post! I attended predominately black scools all my life. Many of the most popular kids were, in fact, smart. My group of friends competed with our SAT scores.

Studies have shown that this “phenomenon” is largely absent in places where there are very few white people. As soon as you add them into the equation, “acting white, talking white” and the like start getting hurled around.

Why is that? In my opinion, it’s because you have a class of black people who don’t just want to be intelligent and successful…they aspire to forget their roots. They want to prove that they are different to get the approval of white people. It’s all in their attitudes.

I was in AP classes and the gifted program, and I’ve NEVER been accused of acting or talking white. I’ve never had the attitude that I’m better than other blacks. I’ve never had the attitude that I prefer the company of whites over blacks. I’ve never had the attitude that I’m somehow different because I’m smart.

Anyway, great post. This is an American problem, and true to form, it’s been foisted upon our shoulders. I pray that we all take of that yoke, rather than embrace it like so many of us seem all to eager to do.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 8:55 am ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:

This just isnt an inner city thing, it is in the suburbs as well.

I got hit with the “acting white” thing when my wife and I talked to our son about bad grades at school. Thing here is that our son is an Arab, his grandfather was a diplomat and he comes from a solid middle class background.

When pushed about why his grades were bad, why he was getting into trouble at school and the like he responded that he “wasnt white and wasnt going to act white”.

Of course we tried to talk him out of the notion that being educated, being intelligent and acting with manners was not a “white thing” he refused to accept it.

My wife and I tried to figure out where he got this mindset from. He wouldnt know the “ghetto” from Hollywood, he has never gone without, he has always lived in upper middle class areas and even attended private school when he was younger.

The closest thing we could come to is that him and his friends, mostly PoC from upper middle class educate backgrounds, have gotten their ideas from Hollywood and false representations of just what really happens in real life.

These kids from the middle class suburbs really try so hard to be something they are not. My wife and I tried to let him know that he has an opportunity to learn, get an education and make a good life for himself. Meanwhile he still idealises “the ghetto”.

My wife and I even wondered if we shouldnt let him wander around Southeast DC some Friday night so he can get that out of his head.

This mindset is out there, but I still dont know where it comes from. One cartoonist I heard an interview with who is at Howard University called it an “aspiring to fail” culture.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 9:04 am ¶
Antonio wrote:

I can only speak from my own experience, but I think it stings a little more to be ostracized by other blacks for being a “nerd”, getting good grades, or talking “proper”. It pushed me to hang out with white “nerds” who said some pretty ignorant things, but at least they didn’t dis me for preferring sci-fi to basketball. By comparison, the two white kids voted “Most Popular” in my high school class were the valedictorian and salutatorian. That’s not to say their high school experience was a walk in the park.

The experience did cause some bitterness. To be branded “white” as a black person is different than a white person being labeled a nerd. Being black is part of your “core identity”, it’s like being told there’s something inherently wrong with the way you think and behave. Some of my family members reinforced this idea. I thought I was done dealing with this sort of thing until one day at work a manager whispered to me “you’re basically one of them anyway”, “them” being his white supervisors standing ten feet away.

It’s probably an overblown problem in the media (like pretty much everything, remember when MRSA was everywhere?), but as controversial as that infamous “n****s” Chris Rock bit is, I remember a lot of people in my neighborhood repeating it and the audience response during the special is pretty clear.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 9:05 am ¶
Gothic Guera wrote:

@ Atlasien In America during the late 1700s and early 1800 many Americans were afraid that German was goint to take over and that we had to learn *GASP* German! James A. Garfield campaigned in two lagnugues in order to increase votes.
Heck even Ben Franklin disliked the idea of German taken over English! In several parts of Latin America(and in America) is was forbidden for Amerindians to speak their own Language. I recall my father telling me that in English banned speaking Gaelic and Welsh. The terms geek was for men who ate the head off a live chicken, bat, snake or bugs. In The 1976 edition of the American Heritage Dictionary included only the definition regarding geek shows “The word comes from English dialect geek, geck: fool, freak; from Low German geck, from Middle Low German. The root geck still survives in Dutch gek: crazy, and in the Alsatian word Gickeleshut: geek’s hat, used in carnivals” (wikipedia )

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 9:14 am ¶
Cynthia wrote:

I also want to note: In my (HK Chinese/immigrant/second gen) circle, not doing well in school (especially if you’re not taking sciences/business), you’re “acting white”!

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 9:19 am ¶
DEAF FEMINIST PUNK!! wrote:

It’s true. I’ve grown up in India, UK and USA. I am amazed and disturbed by how Americans boast against being intelligent and that it is something to be proud of.

Proof # 1: George W. Bush is beloved and seen as “non-threatening” because he is stupid as fuck.

Proof # 2: Paris Hilton is a stupid nasty racist worthless piece of shit who has done nothing interesting and still manages to be famous. Oh, and Americans love her.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:17 am ¶
Antonio wrote:

I’m not familiar with this “n*gger”-calling thing with Paris, can someone fill me in or post a link? And Americans most definitely don’t love her, see the response to Sarah Silverman’s harsh dis last year at the MTV Movie Awards and the glee with which (some, including me) people cheered her jail sentence. The twisted part is any attention furthers a celebrity’s career, good or bad.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:27 am ¶
DEAF FEMINIST PUNK!! wrote:

@ Antonio:

there are Youtube videos of Paris openly saying the N word and also homophobic words. I’m too lazy to google it, I am pretty sure you can find it.

and I beg to disagree with you. many people claim to hate her, but why is she still famous a few years later? and why is she landing yet another TV show and why does her empire continue to expand? why do her perfume lines continue to sell?

it pisses me off and disgusts me.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:37 am ¶
Arturo wrote:

I was hit with the “learned=white” rhetoric by other Mexicans almost immediately after starting school in the U.S. Even as an adult, I get funny looks at my office because I’m reading Sports Illustrated collections or sci-fi instead of gossiping about the latest club antics or whatnot.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:37 am ¶
K wrote:

I agree with you DEAF FEMINIST PUNK. Here in the U.S. people are not proud about being intelligent. I was talking about it with my dad the other day, we were watching the news and I told him that people don’t care about being educated anymore, I know it’s not everyone but it’s more than before. I’m so surprised how ignorance is taking over. I do believe it’s an American problem. People here don’t realize how much value there is in being educated. Many people I know don’t even care about it. Where I grew up, it’s the opposite, you have to be educated and education is valuable.
I blame the system for this. Education is at the bottom list and minorities or what it’s consider “white trash” in inner city schools don’t get any attention at all. At my high school, teachers didn’t even care about most minorities students and like one of the superintendents said “they won’t even graduate anyway.” This stereotype is what makes students give up on education, many of my friends said it and many of them didn’t go to college becasue they thought that it wasn’t going to help because they are still hispanic. It makes me sad, seeing so many smart people give up on something so important.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:40 am ¶
Eric Daniels wrote:

Thanks Merq, we always never agree on anything but anti-intellectualism is an American Problem period, I read Cynthia Tucker’s article yesterday on having to learn a foriegn language to secure a good job in modern america with no racial overtones but in other articles she bashes Black Men and Poor Blacks for criticizing other blacks who values education. I think these people are well-meaning, but they actually contribute to the racial divide because in their attempts to a “bell ringer for black empowerment” they just give ammuntion to our non- black enemies to justify their racist attitudes.

Most Americans in general don’t value anything intellectually unless it agrees with their worldview of how life should be, and that is politcal, social and intellectual and the acting “white syndrome” is personally a red herring and has been proven not to be true in a study conducted in North Carolina 2 years ago by a couple of professors. Most people in school don’t like nerds because they are uncool, and socially inept but they will end up singing the paychecks, running companies like Mircosoft, Apple, and developing the technology for all the ‘players, ballers, jocks, divas and shot callers. That is called sweet revenge in my book.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:53 am ¶
Delux wrote:

Perhaps the Black people around me growing up in Brooklyn were from some sort of alien space colony, because I was encouraged, and expected, to go to school, do well there, and then go on to college.

The people who have had the most hysterics about my gramatically correct speech, knowledge, and academic background have always consistently been white, but I guess that’s a minor detail.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:55 am ¶
Monie wrote:

One of the greatest tools America has used against African Americans is creating studies with a negative outcome. Over and over these studies are released that state how problematic Blackness is. Then the media along with so-called Black leaders repeat the results of these studies hundreds of thousands of times. This despite the fact that no one tries to replicate the studies or research who produced the study (incase they have a specific agenda).

The point; these negative studies and the rhetoric that accompanies them create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tell the Black kids they are bad students enough times and eventually they will believe it and act accordingly.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:00 am ¶
meg wrote:

oh I get it. We are pretending that those phrases AREN’T EVER actually said to kids that do well in school. Okay.

This is ridiculous. No it certain doesn’t apply to most of the people, but I lived in Houston’s 5th ward for 3 years and I DID hear people say it. I did watch the struggle of those few children trying to figure out what to do with such a sick ridiculous statement. It was not that all the children that excelled or tried to excel in school received this message. Luckily it was more like a few people said it to the hard working students.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:01 am ¶
Keke wrote:

I think I got the point you were making, and I completely agree. Anti-intellectualism is not just “an urban” problem (don’t you just love code words? *sigh*) Anyway, speaking strictly from my own experiences in college, I encountered the same phenomenon. Many of my classmates would say “Affirmative action is eroding our educational system. These people (another code phrase) are forcing us to lower the bar, yadda, yadda, yadda, etc. etc.”

But if you asked them to point out Iraq or any other country on a map, they couldn’t do it. Hell, half of them couldn’t even locate their home state on a U.S. map. Many of the people I went to school with were very uneducated about the world and life in general and did not seem interested in rectifying their ignorance. Many people I talked to never had any sound research to back up claims, and I hated getting into debates about foreign policies with anyone.

I even remember some researchers did a study using chimps as the test subjects and college students as a control. The chimps actually fared better on basic math tests than the college students. In many studies, researchers find that many college students, even those coming from so-called affluent communities are wholly unprepared for the rigors of college. So it’s not a “Black” problem, it’s an American problem.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:02 am ¶
Rchoudh wrote:

America as a whole is suffering from this anti-intellectualist trend not just certain segments of society. Thanks to the decreased emphasis on high quality education and the dumbing down of the mainstream media, American kids today of all backgrounds don’t know or even care to know much about current events (a National Geographic study revealed that young people in their early 20’s didn’t know the difference between Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, countries constantly in the news). As usual no one is looking to understand this problem, much less solve it instead blaming only certain segments of society for America’s educational decline.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:06 am ¶
Dan wrote:

I’ll comment more later but I have to say:

“It doesn’t end in the schoolyard, either — you want to know what epithets these kids switch to when barbs like “brainiac” start to clash with their beer guts and facial hair? Try “latte liberal.”

That’s right. A country in which “too learned to be a good leader” has become a legitimate political critique, has the nerve to accuse a single marginalized population of its society of imbibing the very poison it has spoon-fed its young for centuries.”

Absolutely brilliant commentary.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:07 am ¶
HC wrote:

Just a twist: at my (white) husband’s nearly all-white, rural Midwestern school, he was routinely mocked for studying, or even just reading, in public because it was “gay.”

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:10 am ¶
Dawud wrote:

I too was completely unware that Paris Hilton uses the “n” word so frequently in public.

You’re mentioning of Bill Cosby reminded me of his last visit to Detroit. Bill spit out his venom about Blackamericans didn’t leave anything in Africa and bidded us to stop using names like Shakilah, Jamal and Muhammad.

America is the least literate country in the so-called “Developed World” or “1st World”. I wonder how Bill would be received if he spoke about “The Crisis in White America” regarding its high school drop out rate and rising heroin abuse problem.

Naw, I guess those are only problems of “Black America”!

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:20 am ¶
klgaffney wrote:

Why is that? In my opinion, it’s because you have a class of Black people who don’t just want to be intelligent and successful…they aspire to forget their roots. They want to prove that they are different to get the approval of white people. It’s all in their attitudes.

Quoting Lauren’s post earlier–I think that’s actually the assumption made by the Black kids I was going to a predominantly white upper middle class suburban school with, and that attitude really doesn’t help. My family did not lose their roots (save whatever was very deliberately taken from them), we were not wealthy, or successful. My family was just very determined that I should work hard and be successful, because they were robbed of so many opportunities, and we were surrounded by so much failure, frustration, prejudice and despair. A lot of people brought into it; a lot of people gave up and became everything that the stereotypes said of us.

I attended all the AP classes, etc.–and as far as I can tell that, that was one of the overriding factors as to why I completely ostracized by the small minority population. I think they had bought into that cultural assumption that to be black–to prove to be Black, they had to be anti-intellectual. Then I watched all the white kids, and they had that exact same divide–the “smart rich liberal” kids vs the “proud republican blue collar” anti-intellectual types, and the loser “devil worshiping” metal heads.

I don’t think it’s actually a pure race line problem, I think it’s all tangled up with class issues (which most people seem to want to recognize that we have, because that’s just a British thing!), and I think it’s an American identity issue. I think because of that, no one person can speak up and claim to have the “one true experience” in this matter–I actually did have a major problem in a suburban school with Black kids telling me I thought I was white–like my actual physical skin color didn’t actually mean anything–or that I didn’t get spit on, same as them. I don’t think I’m the only person that’s had that experience. It HURT. Saying that it’s a lie, and denying it, is also a slap in the face, and basically telling me that it didn’t happen, and that it’s my fault for going through pure hell my first 12 years of school, and even suggesting I deserved it because I kissed the white man’s butt is also crock. Look at the minefield you’re asking a 5-17 year old kid to differenciate between and navigate, sometimes without any support and actually a lot of derision from peers and family. The fact that I made it at all in such a hostile high-pressure environment gives me NOTHING to be ashamed of.

It was not a lie. I did not deny my roots. I did not “kiss up to the man.” I was just trying to SURVIVE and do well in the situation I was born to, and it tried to eat my face. Too many people around me had drank the “black people don’t do that kool-aide” and tried to fill my head with it, and I really do think that is why you have people saying “stay in your place.” I still hear it from old folks, and I still hear it from young folks. I also hear people saying that this doesn’t happen. All I can say is yes, it does. I’m glad to hear that the experience isn’t universal, but it does happen. We need to stop denying each other’s experiences, and deal with ALL of the stuff that’s been dumped on us, all the crap we’ve inherited, and pull it up by the roots.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:21 am ¶
SarahSimone wrote:

Great post Merq! I’m really glad you brought up that this is an American problem, not a black one. Anti-intellectualism is widely accepted, even celebrated, in this country. Like you pointed out, we’ve somehow reached a sad state where we don’t want our leaders to be highly educated.

I think the difference is the way in which people’s lack of education is perceived. Hate to read, love Bush, couldn’t find Iraq on a map = great. But only if you’re white.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:38 am ¶
Chairo wrote:

not too sure if I wholly agree with this article

It is true that anti-intellectualism is an American problem, but the disparities in achievement between blacks and whites must have some root cause other than general anti-intellectualism

I read this article waiting to find some kind of structured opinion but it just seems like a lot of huffing but no real statement
no statistics, and in depth analysis.

I think the reason why I can’t really take the “its just simple american anti-intellectualism” argument too seriously is because of how many negative images black people endure
how many nihilistic rappers spill nonsense into the minds of young brown kids

young girls of all complexions pick up beauty magazines and see an unattainable standard that many try to aspire to

Mainstream culture still primarily gives us sports figures, vapid music personalities(more than half the boys in my year wanted to be rappers) as role models
why can’t we see there’s a correlation there

If there was an equal amount of diverse positive mainstream images of black people to whites
I’d be inclined to believe black apathy was just simple American anti-intellectualism
I think people downplay just how destructive these memes are.
I”m no self-aggrandizing POC acquiescent in the face of instituionalized racism.
I think black apathy is reinforced by institutionalized racism in schools and with the Entertainment industry

I remember in high school having a mixed race teacher, and a white teacher who would always expect the black kids do to negatively and then reprimand us more severely. Friends of mine who weren’t black would convince me the teachers were racist
We could feel the teacher anticipating bad behaviour from us every lesson.

Because penalties weren’t dealt out evenly a lot of the kids just lost their momentum
This isn’t to say that i was a devil in the class. I was like just like my friends; every now and then I”d talk.
But the fact that again and again I’d see a teacher picking me out over my white friend or greek friend who’d started a conversation with me just got me really dejected and apathetic

If not for two decent teachers I got in the latter years of school, I’d be in a really ugly rut.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:42 am ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:

Anti-intellectualism is not unique to America. Having lived in the UK I can tell you it is alive and well there.

I think the difference in the UK is that there is a much more overt class bent to the issue, rather than being a “white” or a racial thing.

@Cynthia,

It is interesting that “acting white” to one group means you are being smart and educated and to another group it means the exact opposite.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:57 am ¶
soreal879 wrote:

man, this post hits at home!! I have lived in the projects all my life…and as we all know, most people assume that if you were raised there in the hood than you must be a complete idiot and failure at life. Sadly, I get insulted the most not by whites but by my own people for being intelligent and well spoken. I went out this weekend and talked to some black and latino dudes and all that they kept saying was that I had a suburban “accent,” that college “really rubbed off on me” that I talk like white people, etc etc. One guy completely verbally assaulted me when I said I dont date people from around the area. But the truth of the matter is that they have given me so much flack since I was little for being a focused student that I dont have any desire to be with a man that makes me feel invalid for being smart.

I hate these people. Honestly, I would love to date an intelligent and career driven black or hispanic man. But it seems that none of those exist anywhere near me….

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 12:04 pm ¶
TierList E wrote:

I was one of those non-black black kids.

I mainly went to schools that were predominately white, so thats where the hate mainly came from, but I’ve had one or two run ins when surly black people. Well, it was one girl that openly never liked me; I think she thought I didn’t like black people, and I didn’t help I rarely hung out with them, so I can’t say she got that out of nowhere.

From white people I was basically just called a nerd and/or ugly. They only pulled out the “you’re not black” card when they tried to say some negative about black people and I tried to argue against it.

Due to my white-washed school life I know I was more affected by the cruelties of white kids and teenagers than black ones- I’m sure if there were more black people to interact with my experiences wouldn’t've been exactly the same.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 1:12 pm ¶
Gothic Guera wrote:

@ soreal879 I have the same problem. I get heat form t some guy who I’m to smart I took a math class were their were only 3 hispainic students doing well I was one of them. One guy gave me hell. I was the one with the grade. I recall my dad telling me stories that in Iowa he got in trouble for being a mediocre student despite he got high scores on tests and clearly intelligent and well read. My aunt was the good students(This was all in High school), my other aunt, when she entered kindergarten found got who she was related, the teacher said she must have been adopted ,because of her poor grades. My mother was encored to do well, in Mexico. I told a girl in my school, that I liked going to the library . One girl didn’t know what I.Q was. This is why I hate high school, and I take A.p and honor classes. Yet a handful of students in my Honors English class hate reading.(It’s the same with math, science, and history.)

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 1:19 pm ¶
NancyP wrote:

Thank you. A contemporary of mine remembers being called oreo-ish slurs by a few people in her predominantly black middle and high school, because she was a science geek and relatively light (not passing-capable light). And this seemed unfortunate to me, because it conflated the usual uncoolness of being a good student with race implications - twice the B.S. an uncool white science geek (me) had to go through. I’d imagine being called “not black enough” would be somewhat like being called “sissy” or “dyke” for a boy or girl - a bunch more personal than “merely” being uncool.

As long as there are kids, there will be in groups and out groups, with the in groups (or the in kids within a large out group) finding ways to assert dominance over the out kids. I don’t think that the “acting white” taunt will ever go away - there’s always going to be someone seeking some way to be alpha male or female of the class or block - but it could be reduced by role models and teachers showing the “followers” the error of their ways.

One of the main reasons for underperformance - by any race or class student - is excessive TV/ videogame/ computer chat involvement, insufficient attention to schoolwork, and absence of non-required reading.

Americans are pathetic sometimes - all the whining about Obama being “elite”. Dam’ right he’s elite! I don’t want some ignorant slacker running the country, I want somebody really intelligent and hard-working in charge. As we know from the last eight years, a slight majority of Americans (in electoral vote terms) prefer an incurious slacker in charge.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 2:29 pm ¶
bmoreteach wrote:

I teach at a magnet school in an urban environment. About 94% of our student population is African American. All of our students get accepted to college, but only 33% end up graduating from a 4-year institution.

It would be easy to say that the reason for the low college graduation rate is that education and intelligence is not considered “cool” amongst our kids. But that simplifies the situation.

Many, but not all, of our kids go from school where academics are considered important back into a neighborhood or household where being smart or pursuing an education is somehow considered traitorous. Some kids tell me that their families tell them you’re acting white or acting better than the rest of the family or think their more important than other folk. Now other students have family who explain to them that education is important and will afford them many opportunities in life. Not all my students live in environments where education is downplayed, but a significant portion do, and I truly believe that this disregard for education and intelligence is the reason these students don’t finish college. The support system that they get in our high school disappears once they get to college and they are left with only themselves to try to get them through. This is a lonely and hard road to travel.

As for the “acting white” thing, I hear it sometimes (and usually in the context of “speaking white”). But I also have students say to me, “Ms. Teacher, you’re not white; you’re black.” I look at my skin and am pretty sure I’m still white and I ask why. “Because you talk to us; you don’t disrespect us; you treat us like we’re normal.” Does it mean then “acting black” to my students isn’t about acting in a specific media proscribed manner but about respect? Because I run a demanding, rigorous, academic classroom in which education and learning is at the forefront (and I am supposedly “acting black” in my students minds).

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 3:00 pm ¶
Sula Peace wrote:

“I hear studies repeat, ad nauseum, that in white social groups, higher grades mean greater popularity, and I wonder where in June Cleaver’s America they conducted that study, ‘cause that isn’t the America I know.”

It is the America that I know. I think teachers may be as susceptible to popularity as students are. I’m ashamed to admit this but in JHS I was roped into doing a paper for a popular girl that wasn’t too bright. Once I realized what happened I decided to sabotage the project because I’ve always been a hater like that. I purposely inserted the bad grammar and poor spelling that the popular girl would normally use. I wrote my paper in my usual tone. To this day I bristle that the work I did for her received an A+ whereas my paper received an A.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 3:41 pm ¶
bas bleu wrote:

Well done, Merq.

The “acting white” discourse is a powerful one because it’s in sync with the notion of a diseased, deficient black culture. (A notion that plenty of black people buy into, as well.) As you point out, the accusation of “acting white” has much more to do with tastes or affectations than being bookish.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 4:15 pm ¶
Eric Daniels wrote:

Then what are the solutions because all I hear is that anti-intellectalism is a black thing and if that was the case then how can we explain the Jay- Z’s , Puffy’s, Kimora and many black men and Women who have suceeded despite some people teasing from the so-called “cool black crowd”. The “acting white” ethos which was pioneered by John Ogbu in the 80’s has been proven to be false and just because a few black kids were trying to break your self- esteem down does not make it an epidemic in Black American Life.

Americans in general do not value intellectual smarts in any way, they are into successful people who make money because Americans want to be rich and Black People are no different because we watch t.v. and pop culture shows , just ask yourself how many people would rather be on American Idol or Tiffany “New York” Pollard who’s claim to fame is being ghetto as hell. Most Americans are lazy and like the quick and easy way to success and fame. Education is for many people to tedious, hard and because of social factors a struggle,sorry Soreal, Chario because some black and latino guys teased you because you are a nerd and now you are doing the same thing by sterotyping people so that makes you no better than those people who tease you for “acting white” ironic ain’t it. If most people think Fox News is a legitmate New Organization then we are in more trouble than I feared.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 5:58 pm ¶
Chairo wrote:

Sigh

@ Eric Daniels

I never said i was teased for “acting white”.
I wrote about institutionalized racism and negative black images in the media

“Jay- Z’s , Puffy’s, Kimora”
sigh

Using these people as examples of what blacks should aspire to is kinda problematic, especially using Kimora and puffy

Not every young black man is going to be able to amass the type of wealth and influence popular culture in the way Jay z has. These three figures reinforce the “american” dream fallacy. Jay Z and puffy made it because the guys in black suits said it was OK for them to make it, because their music and their images could be exploited.

If I were to be as presumptuous about you like you were of me, I could say I find it quite predictable the people you cited
instead of figures like Spike Lee, Oprah, Toni Morrison

You cite figures who’ve been part of the problem.

In London there’s a higher number of POC (especially blacks) being killed in relation to our knife crime problem

I find it tiring this blatant dismissal of a clearly palpable issue.

football hooliganism is primarily a white working class issue over here

Knife crime and gun crime in London is primarily a working class black problem

By not looking at the patterns that crop up with some of these ugly issues, we pretty much just ignore them

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 8:41 pm ¶
RainaWeather wrote:

Good post. This whole “phenomenon” really is bullshit. I got called “white” a lot, especially in my (100% black) elementary school, but it was never for my good grades. Good grades was something that made me popular (or at least saved me from being a total social reject). When I read the phrase “they’re proud of their ignorance” I immediately thought of White super Christian people who believe evolution is evil because the bible doesn’t say people “come from monkeys”. I ‘m sure that’s also blown out of proportion.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 9:00 pm ¶
Eric Daniels wrote:

Chario those images of Oprah, Spike Lee, Ben Carson and others are out there for anyone who wants to see them and Black Kids know who these people are but their heroes are Jay- Z, Rusell Simmons, and Combs because some of these kids came up the same way and want to build their own empires or close to it, and the story is about anti- intellectualism not black crime or POC relationship to it. You think that the White American or British Media is going to show postive images of black people you are dreaming because there is a media culture that says “if it bleeds it leads” and they love showing Black People acting a fool and being violent or just being absurd.

If you want the negative images to decrease then start your own newspapers, multimedia outlets and music channels to compete with the BETS, MTVS, and FOX ,NBC, CBS and other cable channels and movies because the media will never stop reporting bad black american models . And as far Black People being apatheic about crime, are many organizations in the states and I assume in the U.K. that are combating these serious problems to say that a whole race of people is not doing anything or in denial reeks of people living in glass houses throwing stones are people because it’s not being solved quickly enough.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 9:23 pm ¶
Chairo wrote:

@ Eric Daniels

You’re misinterpreting things i’m saying and you’re also contradicting yourself

you said:
“If you want the negative images to decrease then start your own newspapers, multimedia outlets and music channels to compete with the BETS, MTVS, and FOX ,NBC, CBS and other cable channels and movies because the media will never stop reporting bad black american models .”

but before that you said: “their heroes are Jay- Z, Rusell Simmons, and Combs because some of these kids came up the same way and want to build their own empires or close to it”

On some level you must be conceding that the figures glorified on BET are negative, otherwise you wouldn’t suggest making an alternative. The “make-your-own-alternative” argument is so profoundly stupid and defeatist. Lets just forget ever trying to have a president who’s not white straight male, everyone who isn’t those things should make their own little America right? where they can be president.

Daniels you didnt address anything bmoreteach said regarding this issue.

You keep thinking i’m saying the disparities exist solely because of anti-intellectualism and i’ve told you I don’t think that.

Just to gauge your perspective, why do you think the disparities exist?

btw i mentioned the crime in London because its a very clear example of negative images infiltrating the minds of young black boys

people keep saying the problem is solely because of poverty. I think that is part of the problem. But there are lot of poor areas in the UK where kids don’t resort to shooting one another over area codes.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 9:53 pm ¶
merq wrote:

Thanks for all the comments, folks. Some fascinating viewpoints here.

PerceptiveReality and others:
I probably could’ve done a better job linking the “foreign names/languages” issue with the rest of the post. I tend to write almost in stream-of-consciousness style, and so poor Latoya and Carmen have often had to receive multiple edits of my posts.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make (as atlasien hinted at) is that this disdain for foreign languages and cultures is symptomatic of this problem. Like I said in the post, these “languagey” trappings are often accepted (except in cases where melanin meets the Spanish language), and even exoticized when exhibited by “real” foreigners. But an American who pronounces “croissant” in the proper (read: French) manner had better have Zombie Cochran on speed-dial to get him out of what’s coming next.

I’m not knocking those who pronounce these words in the Americanized fashion. Rather, I’m objecting to those who attack people who pronounce (or spell) words in a “foreign” manner. Beyond xenophobia, these attacks carry the “you think you’re better than me” complex and its resultant accusation.

Abu Sinan:
Your son’s (and his peers’) fear of being perceived as learned is symptomatic of two American fundamentals – the above-stated anti-intellectualism and the racist assumption that not only does “smart” equal “white,” but “proper” does too. I’m sure you’ve heard people patronizingly refer to themselves as “the whitest guy/girl alive” in reference to an inability to talk slang, act aggressively, or (as I read in the comments on another post) shake hands in a more… colorful style.

Where are they getting it? America. Why? They’re kids. Will they outgrow it? That’s definitely the hope.

I don’t mean to come off all “Merq, Child Psychologist,” but that’s basically what I got from your post.

Antonio and Meg:
Don’t get me wrong. People do in fact get second-guessed for not fitting into the box their types have been assigned to. Like I’m sure I’ve said on here before, I get looked at askance because I’m a 6’7” black male who doesn’t wear baggy clothes or listen exclusively to today’s mainstream hip-hop. (In other news, I just realized how awesome the word “askance” is. I really should use it more often.)

Sure, nobody actually says anything to me about these things (my size may or may not have something to do with it), but I get more questioning looks than I care to count. And when someone does say something to me, it’s usually in the form of a searching “where are you from?” inquiry. Translation: “You don’t fit into my understanding of the African-American male… please explain.” As proud as I am of my Nigerian origin, nothing grates on my nerves more than the “ahh, that explains it” expression on their faces when I explain my roots.

But this really only tends to come from white people. Am I then justified in assuming that only white people have a problem with any display of knowledge? No. In a similar vein, don’t let yourself be convinced that because your experiences involved mostly black people, that they’re the sole culprits here.

Chairo wrote:

not too sure if I wholly agree with this article
It is true that anti-intellectualism is an American problem, but the disparities in achievement between blacks and whites must have some root cause other than general anti-intellectualism

You’re absolutely right, there is some other root cause. We could with institutionalized racism. You mentioned a number of issues currently plaguing Black America, but you’re missing two things:
1. Yes, we have tragically unfit figures being hoisted upon our kids as role models, but be reminded that “The Three Bimbos of the Apocalypse” (Paris, Lindsay, Britney) are all white, and white-geared role models.
2. Even the 50 Cents and Flavor Flavs of the world are white-geared celebrities. The only difference is that middle-class kids look at these figures as escapist fantasies, while “inner-city” kids (howdya like them code-words, keke?) often find themselves aspiring to these figures because the their (often embellished or all-out fictitious) narratives may mirror their own, but they have found the American Dream.
3. I never said there were not legitimate issues unique to Black America. What I’m saying is that anti-intellectualism is just not one of them. My college experience was dangerously close to mirroring yours. I was an A/A+ student in undergrad, but I learned pretty early on that if I was to have any hope of not being seen as the “damn seat-filler… why is he even here?” guy, I had to over-participate in the first two weeks of every semester. That speaks not to some phantom essential anti-intellectualism in blacks, but to a different issue entirely.

Thanks again for the comments, but I must run now.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:43 pm ¶
merq wrote:

Abu Sinan:
I’m sorry, but I couldn’t let this go unchecked.

Where are they getting it? America. Why? They’re kids. Will they outgrow it? That’s definitely the hope.

That’s really not true. Was being overly diplomatic on that one (as one probably should be when discussing someone else’s child). My beliefs are a little more in line with the following:

Where are they getting it? America. Why? They’re in America. Will they outgrow it? That’s definitely the hope, but it takes work.

There. now i can sleep.

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 10:52 pm ¶
Gironde wrote:

Wow, I was going to respond to this until I saw Monie’s choice comment. Umm, conspiracy much? Sociologists don’t wake up in the morning and try their damndest to create negative outcomes for African Americans. Hello… if studies point to negative outcomes it’s BECAUSE there are negative outcomes and denying that Black America has a serious problem - even if it reflects a greater, more racially generalized problem - doesn’t help.

There seem to be a lot of anecdotes in this thread about smart POC being attacked by dumb POC for aspiring to be successful. The first question is this: how much does anti-intellectualism contribute to these negative outcomes?

And with that established, if anti-intellectualism IS a denominator in play (I feel that it is), then why does it seem to afflict Black America more than other groups?

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:17 pm ¶
Pheagan wrote:

Fantastic, and exactly, exactly, exactly. And re: pronunciation of names– I think a lot of that is down to anglophonic language-phobia. And what is up with that, by the way? It’s not just Americans; I have never met an Australian who spoke another language (I’ve heard they don’t require you to take a language in high school, but I’m not sure if that’s completely true), and English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish people are pretty bad about it, too (except for the indulgence of Celtic languages like Gaelic and Welsh). Anglophone Canadians tend to be a bit better, but I think outside of anglophonic countries it’s more often than not common for people to speak at least two languages.
And furthermore, anti-intellectualism actually really is a big problem for girls, I think. I remember going from junior high to high school and watching all of the smart, funny girls I knew start to hide and even sabotage their intelligence. And the culture actively seems to prefer women to be stoopid, it’s so funny and sweet and endearing and non-threatening. And you see a lot of articles focusing on the cultural stuff, but you never have articles going to people like Jessica Simpson (who made a mascot out of her stupidity) and asking why they inflict this anti-intellectualism on themselves. And there’s the occasional feminist article about women in the hard sciences, but there’s never articles about just, you know, your average smart chick who feels an outsider because of her completely normal intelligence– and anyways any focus on anti-intellectualism for women is always hopelessly white-centric, and tends to privilege what counts as REAL intelligence (hence all the articles about women in the hard sciences– lawyers and doctors and architects aren’t smart).

Posted 12 Aug 2008 at 11:21 pm ¶
Prometheus wrote:

I can’t exactly recall who wrote it, but I’m really tired of people equating learning with Black folks “forgetting where they come from”. For many, I think there is such an OVERidentification with our history or where we come from, that we push ourselves to become educated and allow ourselves to have more than we once did. Because we don’t return to those old neighborhoods doesn’t mean we’re forgetting where we come from (because I’ve heard that before). Why would I return to a place where other PoC told me I was trying to ‘be white’ because I hung out with the people in my advanced classes (which I was the only PoC until middle school). Those mostly White kids didn’t make fun of me because I liked to read and listen to pop/alternative music more than hip hop. While I hoped it would be so different in college, that wasn’t really the case. There were just more PoCs who had a similar experience to mine in which I could make contact with. And my college was more White than my high school.

More kids these days are seeing race as a non-issue, and this is not the “I don’t see race!” phenomenon; more like “I know what your race is and I’m curious to how your life is different than mine’” trend. I hope that continues, but it’s our job to spread it!

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 1:37 am ¶
gatamala wrote:

I actually did have a major problem in a suburban school with Black kids telling me I thought I was white–like my actual physical skin color didn’t actually mean anything–or that I didn’t get spit on, same as them. I don’t think I’m the only person that’s had that experience. It HURT. Saying that it’s a lie, and denying it, is also a slap in the face, and basically telling me that it didn’t happen, and that it’s my fault for going through pure hell my first 12 years of school, and even suggesting I deserved it because I kissed the white man’s butt is also crock.

I went through the same thing too klgaffney. The irony is that I went home to a virulently racist neighborhood that these kids couldn’t even dream of. I fought the good fight, yet some kids were determined to live up to every stereotype they could (and verbally articulated them in class). Yet now, which one of us is expected to donate free legal services to those “left behind”?

FTR: My musical preferences encompassed theirs AND was a bit broader. Even if I didn’t listen to BDP, are we now saying that epithets that excise folks from their identity based on musical tastes are legitimate?

I think it’s definitely due to the dynamics of the environment. Friends who attended majority black schools, where achievement had a black face, didn’t suffer. Those of us who would have been the “only” but for BUSING, dealt with it constantly.

What has happened is white america has heard us “airing our dirty laundry” and will “use it against us” (so what else is new?) so now folks want to throw it back in the closet and pretend that it doesn’t exist. The definition (like our vernacular) keeps changing and the goal posts keep moving. This always happens when the white folks catch on. Gotta change what we mean.

One step forward, two steps back.

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 8:25 am ¶
bas bleu wrote:

I wouldn’t say that it has “never happened,” and I don’t want to dismiss painful things that happened anyone. But I still maintain that the “acting white” discourse is about more than”black people don’t like intellectuals.” It sounds like part of the “you think you’re white” bullying described here was about the target’s alliances (real or imagined) with white people. Of course, that doesn’t make it right, and it doesn’t change the teasing. But it complicates that discourse.

In my case, AP classes were predominantly black. Being smart wasn’t equated with being one of the white kids. My hometown also had a significant number of black professionals from HBCUs, so I think that contributed to a sense that people can be “black” and intellectual.

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 10:06 am ¶
Meep wrote:

I’m starting to see that there is not a lot of consistency from the experiences of the various posters. I wonder if anyone has done a study on this.

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 12:37 pm ¶
Eric Daniels wrote:

Chario I don’t know why the problem of crime exists amongst young black males whether in the U.K. or in the States but I can assume it springs from a “surivial of the fittest” mentailty and profit motive . Many of these men in the inner city are doing the same thing the Italians, Jews and Irish criminal enterprises did in enforcing it’s illegal rackets and would resort to violence and indimitation either verbal or with weapons to make sure the rival crews would think twice before steepping in their neighborhood.

And I am not being inconsistent in the media and why Black People who feel ashamed of these images should start their own media empires , and kids who don’t have much see the Jay-Z’s and Puffy’s worthy of emulating because they came up hard and got rich on their own terms (which is not ture) Hispanics and Asians in this country have their own media for good or bad and connects to the outside world and home countries, why as a Black Man living in America should I trust my oppressor to show my images correctly? like Malcolm X said “you don’t” and quite correctly and you must keep an eye on your own group even more (BET anyone?)

Black Americans need to develop a little more pragmatic cynical attitude when it comes to the white american media.

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 2:48 pm ¶
C-Marsh wrote:

@ Meep

I actually conducted a small study on social definitions of “acting White” and “acting Black” last year. I had a really small sample size and only about 20 Black participants total. I did surveys and interviews, but only about 5 interviews (All PoCs in the interviews). I found that most people equated “acting White” with positive stereotypes like speaking proper english, havning money, and earning good grades, while most people described “acting Black” as the opposite. The interviews examined how the concepts of “acting White and Black” were based more on “societies” interpretation rather than personal interpretation. The initial results would have come off as my college was full of “self-hating” Black folks, but the interviews probed the idea more.

One interesting finding was from one particpant who was Thai/White. She’s from Jersey and heavily identified with Black Culture. She said that when she thought of “acting White” negative images immediately came to mind such as being “corny” or a not being able to dance. She made a comment that made a lot of sense. She said that because she identified as part white that when asked to describe the stereotypes white that the negative images came to mind first. This falls in line with research about White privilege. People don’t think about what comes easy to them, but rather things that they have difficulty with. i.e. You don’t think about walking through an open door, but you do think about it if you have to find a way to open a locked door.

The downsides to my research was that it was an extremely small sample and that many of the interviewees were people who were quite knowledgeable about race and race relations, but some of the findings were interesting none the less. (Definitely not a published study….yet).

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 3:28 pm ¶
Sean wrote:

I had the reverse problem, growing up in the hood. The other black kids would indeed clown me for being a nerd, but I didn’t experience “identity questioning” until I became an adult and joined the workforce. There, I encountered weird attitudes from white colleagues ranging from “You’re so articulate” from well-meaning, but misguided co-workers, to “He’s not a real black guy” from straining-to-be-hip white guys, who watched one hip-hop video too many.

It was this group who gave me a rash of problems because of things like my taste for Soundgarden, as opposed to Dr Dre.

Sure is interesting, having to carry the weight of everyone ELSE’S expectations sometimes…

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 3:41 pm ¶
Sean wrote:

…That being said, it’s strange times we’re living in, when a gangsta rapper’s career can end if he’s “outed” as having gone to college and/or had a legitimate occupation.

Rick Ross, anyone?

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 4:12 pm ¶
Eric Daniels wrote:

Rick Ross went to college Sean ? I always thought he looked igorant and was the modern day Lil Jon, I knew David Banner was student body President of Southern University so it’s not true they aren’t “True Hardcore Gangstas of the Hood” who did some dirt and hard time but are “Nerds and Herbs”. Man “Ice Cold” , “Taste T” and “Tone Def ” from N.W.H. ain’t gonna like that because they are some real O.G.’s outta of the neighborhood.

If you know who Ice Cold is then you are a hispter !!!

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 4:54 pm ¶
Janine deManda wrote:

Gironde wrote:
“Umm, conspiracy much? Sociologists don’t wake up in the morning and try their damndest to create negative outcomes for African Americans.”

And I just have to say, um, naive much? Science is so NOT a pure bastion of unbiased knowledge. Without careful, purposeful work to limit its impact, unconscious bias can shape outcomes in scientific contexts, neverminding what can happen when the scientist{s} involved go into something knowing how they want or even simply expect it to come out and structuring the experiment or study or analysis thereof in a way that makes that more likely than not.

Anti-intellectualism is endemic in the United States, yes {if one more blog post of mine gets one more “you’re bullying me with your big words” bullshit response, I’m gonna scream}, and I’m not going to argue that it’s not a problem in some parts of black community, but I sure as hell am going to argue with the absolutely absurd assertion that if the scientists say it’s so, then it’s so. Should we drag out the long, long lists of racist bullshit that has been “proven” by science or excused by science or done in the name of science?

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 6:04 pm ¶
jen* wrote:

Thank you, Janine, you’re right.

And Merq - I loved this. Glad to see you writing here.

I went to predominately white schools, and was one of the top three in my class, wherever I was. The top three in the class were never the most popular [in private/prep schools]. The popular ones weren’t stupid, but they weren’t super-achievers academically. Several times, they led the charge against those of us who were at the top of the class - calling names, etc. It wasn’t thoroughly malicious, but there was the clear message that we would never be “popular”.

At school, I was never accused of acting or talking “white”, but it did happen a few times in other social situations. It never happened enough for me to assume that black people prized ignorance over intelligence more than any other ethnic group.

And your opening line: “They are proud of their ignorance.” That just took me back to Obama, when he was talking about the McCain campaign’s decision to deride his comments about keeping tires properly inflated for better gas mileage. {http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/05/obama-gop-takes-pride-in_n_117132.html}

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 6:57 pm ¶
Gironde wrote:

Um, Janine, please put some more words in my mouth. I study sociology and will tell you that the overwhelming majority of the literature points to negative outcomes for African Americans. I was pointing out Monie’s totally fucktarded conspiracy shit about whities pushing some kind of agenda on modern social science to show that being Black is bad. Since when is identifying a negative outcome for a group the same as a problem with that group?

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 10:31 pm ¶
kevynn wrote:

okay… i wasnt gonna comment, but seeing that this is basically what im surrounded with everyday, i just have to! first of all, let me just say, you are right on the money when you talk about black kids surrounding themselves with all this “anti intellectualism” bullshit. omigod. i havnt gone back to school yet but i will in about a week and damn no offense those kids are ANNOYING. dont get me wrong im not trying to be all uppity most of us come from the same working class-getting by paycheck to paycheck- trying to stretch a dollar families. i wish i could be cool with these people. but… its so sad that they (not just blacks us hispanics or latinos or whatever the hell you want to call us) act like that cuz they have a chance at a great education even if were not a rich school and i guess considered inner city, even though i bet there are hella schools that just cuz there inner city doesnt make them any worse or better. i went to a GATE elementary school and over there the cool kids wernt the smartest, they just had all the money. in fact im pretty smart but damn i was still picked on cuz i looked weird and was a nerd and had a weird name and i was just myself. and things dont change once you get into middle and high school. anyways, i think the reason this is happening more and more is because, of course, rap music and whatnot. damn just a couple months ago EVERYBODY was doing the soldier boy.any ways they just give us these books to read or notes to copy, and thats it. i think this really needs to change. the sad thing is that assimilation and brainwashing starts at a young age, but now its our (the youth) responsibility to figure out whats right and whats bullshit. most people will spend the rest of their lives eating up this crap, from paris hilton on THE NEWS(hello,its called the news for a reason,not just to know some dumb rich broad doest know how to drive or whatever) to fox calling obamas wife his baby mama, yet no one speaks out.

sorry i know this is soooo long, but what im trying to get at is that regardless what happens in the future when barrack obama (hopefully) becomes president and even ten years from now, but we have to put faith in ourselves and teach our kids good morals because the rest of the world sure as hell isnt going to do it for us. because just cuz you send your children to school, doesnt mean theyre actually learning anything. real education doesnt always happen in the classroom. sorry for writing so damn much, but when you finally find a place that is actually seeing whats happening in the world these days, its hard not to rant.

oh yeah, and about the name thing. my name is pronounced kevin and im a girl. of all my so far nine years of education, people still act ignorant as hell towards it. even though i dont say anything when people name their kids dejenay and tequisha and artisha (girls i actually know LOL) no offense. but yea sorry again i just think people gotta realize that THIS IS AMERICA, ITS CALLED THE LAND OF THE FREE FOR A REASON!!!

Posted 13 Aug 2008 at 10:46 pm ¶
CG wrote:

Based on my experiences and the comments I read here, I’m convinced that anti-intellectualism is an American problem AND an African American problem. I’m sure Merq and others are aware of this, and perhaps the point of this post is to guard against looking at this as just another “black thing.” But this problem is so pervasive that I do think there is some value to focusing on how it impacts our Black communities in particular, and there might be an even greater danger in saying this is no big deal since everybody’s doing it.

As Chris Rock’s routine (”Can you whoop my ass?!”) and many comments above illustrate, the problem of anti-intellectualism is not only very real for minorities, it is also quite specific for Blacks since notions of assimilation, “acting white,” “selling out,” etc. cut deep in Black identity politics and are thought of as tantamount to betraying one’s race. No one’s trying to say that all Blacks are anti-intellectual (class seems to be a factor–clearly bourgeois Blacks worry much less), but let’s not pretend that by acknowledging that smart Black kids get bullied by their own peers that we’re somehow getting duped by the racist power structure. Let’s not wait for the rest of the country to straighten itself out, when we can do a little house-cleaning on our own.

As too many of the hip hop icons of today demonstrate, you better be bad-ass, bankin’ and beautiful if you’re gonna be smart and respected in America. Otherwise, you run the risk of having your identity (and loyalty) questioned because in this society Black intellectuals are usually considered “suspect” long before they’re seen as “cool” (Obama, Corey Booker).

Posted 14 Aug 2008 at 3:10 pm ¶
soreal879 wrote:

@ eric daniels. I’m not stereotyping these hood brothers. Believe me, I know most of these kids and they are just losers. I have no shame for being a nerd, kuz so far I havent gotten pregnant by some loser from the hood (like some of my friends have).

I should probably add that this recent convo w/the hoodrats that have always made fun of me was at 11pm on a Friday night while my girl (the teen mom) and I were talking about her baby-daddy problems….these boys were in the kids park, drinking publicly, rolling blunts (we smelled it), breaking bottles, and peeing right in front of us.

…..now, moving on. i’m just talking about who I am and where I am from. My mom and I had conversations about how come our family came out different than everyone else in the hood who keep digging themselves in deeper holes of poverty and despair. We came up with just one reason: they have no class/education. Now, the below is just an observation we were making regardless of race….

Let me explain. There are basically four types of individuals in this world. The educated (through school, talent, “street smarts”, learning from others, descendant from another smartass) w/means (economic, social, institutional, political, luck, opportunity, etc); educated w/o means; the uneducated with means; and the uneducated w/o means.

Educated people w/means get far in life. There is little obstacles they have to overcome in life, except the usual stuff (peer pressure, disapproval, popularity, parental stuff, being a nerd or whatever, maybe even drinking probs or something, etc)

Educated people w/o means (like myself and my family) can also get far in life but we just have to bust our ass to do so. We have to create paths for ourselves to lift ourselves out of poverty or low-income in order to establish firm roots and be able to prosper and bring about economic stability to our descendants.

Uneducated people w/means are the most annoying people, quite honestly. These are the individuals who are basically supported by their parents or family while they go screw up their lives or make their family suffer. There is hope for them if they quickly realize they need to grow up and take responsibility for their own lives.

Uneducated w/o means….well you are basically screwed. These type of people will keep making mistakes that will keep their family impoverished or struggling to make ends meat b/c they dont know how to dig themselves out of the hole they are in. Now, there is hope for this group too. This group of people need HELP. They need those with education and means to come in and pass down the knowledge they know. They also need to be taught how to take care of themselves and not doom their children to the same conditions they live in.

some crazy hypothesis mom and I came up with. LOL. either way, we are counting down the days until we move out of the hood….and when they ask us how we did it, I will be pointing to my h.s. and college degree and my financial literacy books.

Posted 14 Aug 2008 at 5:33 pm ¶
G.D. wrote:

soreal879: you say you’re not stereotyping and promptly proceeded to offer up a bunch of generalizations.

“My mom and I had conversations about how come our family came out different than everyone else in the hood who keep digging themselves in deeper holes of poverty and despair. We came up with just one reason: they have no class/education. Now, the below is just an observation we were making regardless of race….”

Whenever this topic comes up, it’s hard not to be reminded just how pervasive the self-made-person myth is in American culture. And as has been said before in this thread, a lot of the people who brandish their fists at “those ignorant hood-dwellers” do so as a means to feel superior. You know, so they can feel “not like the rest of them.” That stereotype allows them to equate their (often perceived) differences with the people around them with personal virtue.

“Uneducated people w/means are the most annoying people, quite honestly. … There is hope for them if they quickly realize they need to grow up and take responsibility for their own lives… Uneducated w/o means….well you are basically screwed. These type of people will keep making mistakes that will keep their family impoverished or struggling to make ends meat b/c they dont know how to dig themselves out of the hole they are in. Now, there is hope for this group too. This group of people need HELP. They need those with education and means to come in and pass down the knowledge they know. They also need to be taught how to take care of themselves and not doom their children to the same conditions they live in.”

Okay, this is a lot of paternalism and elitism to unpack. But you’re assuming from the slivers of people’s lives you’ve seen that they don’t take “responsibility for their own lives,” and that they need the ranks of the munificent “achievers” to step down from on high and civilize them. Also, this argument assumes the normativity of middle class values and the deviance of those who don’t hold them.

Posted 15 Aug 2008 at 9:29 am ¶
Mylie wrote:

I don’t get why most repliers are applauding this post. There is a problem with America’s culture of anti-intellectualism, and in my experience, especially so among black youth. Dismissing the problem isn’t going to help. Even if it isn’t a problem especially with black youth, since the author is admitting it’s a problem and most writers here seem to follow a “stick with your own” strategy, shouldn’t s/he want to help blacks the most?
I’m a 16 year old girl, and I’ve definitely seen this problem. I’ve been accused of acting white by other black people, as have many of my friends who aspire to get high grades. I’ve never heard similar accusations from whites.
The most popular black students have fairly low grades. The most popular white students have, at lowest, B averages.(Side note: It’s even more extreme if one divides by sex as well as race.) Whites with low grades are outcasts. They’re the people who eat lunch at the far end of the commons, the ones referred to as weirdoes. Blacks with low grades are readily accepted and revered. It’s a fact.
It’s not just at my school. I’ve tutored kids and I was a teacher this summer, both in majority black programs and even by 2nd grade, all the boys already want to be athletes or rappers. In the summer program I taught, there were about 60 boys and all but one wanted to be one of those two things. I know that some very smart students aimed for lower grades so that they’d be more accepted by their friends. Those who still had high grades didn’t make it known. The few white students weren’t like this. But there were only 2, so that might have just been their personalities.
Ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away, folks.

Posted 16 Aug 2008 at 5:56 pm ¶
TierList E wrote:

Oh, let’s stay away from saying the word fact at a time like this. It’s a fact for you I’m sure, but not for me.

My responses from my black and white students were roughly equal. Both races that got upset over my grades were basically mad that I was percieved (was) smarter than them. Both races essentially ignored me, with a few friends and a few enemies (whites were statistically higher on all accounts because they were the majority of the school). Even when I did actually go through a phase where I didn’t want to hang around black people I’ve never faced open hostility except from that one woman mentioned earlier. I was a curious sideshow for most black students and nothing to most whites.

Maybe the cooperative nature was stronger because there was so few of us, but I never had my grades or higher level classes used against me. Heck the only guy that made me feel bad for my grades/classes was a white male, who always took time out to tell me I was a nerd and that I and my racial gender were undesirable and masculine.

Posted 16 Aug 2008 at 11:48 pm ¶
Fiqah wrote:

Wow, great post, and so good to see you your stuff here again.

Also, ummm…you’re 6′7″?

Damn. (*Massive crush on Merq grows exponentially.*)

Posted 25 Aug 2008 at 3:18 pm ¶
Korolev wrote:

Sad fact of the matter is that in the US, higher learning is no longer valued by many, many, many people, of all groups and ethnic backgrounds. In the US, I think it’s half or even more than half of all researchers in scientific/engineering fields in universities came from overseas. The same thing is happening in Australia - in my lab, we have 2 Australian citizens out of 7, including myself, comprising the research staff. The rest are from China, India, Japan, Indonesia and Brazil. A similar thing is seen in many other labs, like my sisters, in which she is the ONLY Australian citizen - the rest coming from all over the globe as well (including one American).

This is the problem in the US/UK/AUS - our culture no longer places an emphasis on being “cultured” or highly educated. In Australia, we have this popular music channel called “Channel V” which is similar to your MTV (which we also get). And it’s the dregs, the absolute dregs. If that’s what young people are turning into, I don’t want to be in that category any more (I’m only 21). These days, it seems like Australian kids want to act like “Bogans”, an Australian slang term which is similar to the UK slang term “Chavs”.

Every single year, more and more and more of our researchers are coming from overseas - and that’s a good thing in many ways. I immigrated here myself (I was 3 years old) from Malaysia. But Australia won’t maintain a good economy if its own citizens don’t take an interest in science, and I think the same thing is true in the US. Right now, the rest of the world is taking science seriously, while US/UK/Australian students are off getting business degrees.

Posted 26 Aug 2008 at 10:15 am ¶
JP wrote:

Not sure if this is covered in above comments, but I thought I’d mention that education / “intelligence” and “being learned” is one of the main differentiators in our American class system. College education separates the blue collar from the white collar world. There is a huge cultural difference between those two worlds and not a whole lot in common. Therefore it is always a classist insult to a fellow member of your class to insinuate they are less than worthy of membership. To wit, the term “towny” or “bridge and tunnel” among upper class New Yorkers, or calling someone a snob, frat-boy or college kid pejoratively among blue collar peers. The phenomenon of telling other Black people that they “acting white” is unfortunate because it takes the class differentiator and turns it into a race differentiator as well.

The irony of it all is that in this society that values upward mobility and has conditions that make that mobility possible, our own cultural perspectives are our worst enemies. I know that this class division is inherent in human nature… at least in my own Latin community, we have similar divisions here and in Latin America. Terms like Jibaro, huaso, campesino, naco indicating poor farm or hill people are also common and help distinguish the more “enlightened” from the “coarser, simpler” people.

The sad part about emphasizing these terms is that they are self-fulfilling prophesies. As soon as you make it unpopular to be educated, smart and learned, you are basically erecting the walls to your own upward mobility. It is very effective in Latin America, as there is little upward mobility. Maybe we have the same problem here too.

Posted 27 Aug 2008 at 8:10 am ¶
abw wrote:

I’m glad to hear that the experience isn’t universal, but it does happen.

I think that there is too much focus on students not achieving solely because of the acting “white phenomenon” when I think other factors come into play as much or more so than this. But this *does* play a role. Anyway, anti-intellectualism in the black community stems from ***BOTH**** internalized racism/colonialism, classism and general anti-American intellectualism. It also does not help, that enough African Americans have slipped through the cracks regardless of advanced education and no criminal records. Do not get me wrong, there are “a-lot” of African American success stories that seem to be highly underrated at times. But alot of us may have either heard or known of people, or have heard second hand stories of people that have either ALMOST or in some cases HAVE slipped through the cracks despite having a decent education. Another thing the black strain of anti-intellectualism come from is the down side of integration/assimilation in that we did not take it upon ourselves to critically analyze how Mainstream American values, practices, or tradition we decided to adapt in full may negatively impact us considering our circumstances were/are somewhat different than whites. Some of us did not/do not think about this stuff or do this because we felt that the values,practices, or traditions we picked from whites were automatically superior without respect to our circumstances or culture since we internalized the worst about ourselves in enough cases.Which goes back to our own internalized racism playing a factor alongside institutionalized racism. As for the sociological studies, there IS a grain of truth in the studies at times, but social sciences and the other subjects as well, DO have their share of biased assumptions-usually unstated- that often counterproductively impact the research which can determine the viability of the SOLUTIONS offered in terms of solving the problems. This is my issue with the over emphasis on one or two factors at the expense of other factors when it is usually not only the factor(s) usually stated but *also* several other serious factors with as much and sometimes even more impact. In addition to this, another problem is that certain segments of both the black and white community dismiss the potential of black children by displaying their lack of expectations for the students. Anyway, there is no denying or any need to deny that certain problems exist in the black community. So I have no issue with acknowledging the problems of the community. But I do feel like the overly negative press given to problems, especially when it oversensationalized, end up doing one of two things-confirming the stereotypes people often have of us and most importantly, encouraging,apathy,hopelessness, and fatalism among a segment of blacks that will find justification in writing the community off since they already think the worst about it.In all fairness, these people don’t need many excuses to do this but they have more than enough evidence in their favor. I also feel like these studies when done with notable bias, blunt the progress of people slightly uniformed but actually doing something in the community by expounding on the so-called intractibility of the problems. It goes beyond highlighting the seriousness of the problems to being “black” propaganda about the impossibility of solving the problems. Finally, in reference to personal experience-I have gotten equal flack from both silly black and white people for valuing education which tells me that alot though not all Americans do not expect intellectualism from their own generally nor minorities particularly. I say this because some posters have been saying that disporportionately one side usually give more grief than the other when both are capable of this! I have had cases when whites have criticized me at predominantly BLACK SCHOOLS for being “white acting” based on their narrow conception of blackness and I like hip hop/other black music, speak a little EBONICS and slang, and ran track and field. Like WTF!

Posted 31 Aug 2008 at 6:25 pm ¶
Tom wrote:

I agree that this problem is one that is limited to the US, the UK, Australia and NZ; all countries where the majority of inhabitants have British ancestors. My theory? The many English wars with France that are to blame. We (the British) liked to distance ourselves from our enemies by defining ourselves as practical, less sophisticated creatures. This attitude rose to ridiculous levels, such as the English shunning the use of forks for eating, simply because it was a French invention and was seen as effete. You only need to look at the contrast in dress between the Cavaliers and Roundheads to see this difference in philosophy. This hatred of ’sophistication’ led to a mistrust of learning, and it is an attitude prevalent in their ancestors today.

Posted 12 Sep 2008 at 9:34 am ¶
jayson wrote:

I agree in the sense that the so-called problem of anti-intellectualism is probably over-exaggerated. But whether you like it or not–go into the inner city and see not for yourself that for black kids their role models are basketball players, rappers, and football players. I mean if you really are in touch with “Black America”, you wouldn’t help but notice that you probably have either met or noticed a large number of black people selling their demos and mixtapes trying to get a record deal. So whether you want to acknowledge it or not…a problem exists.

Posted 13 Nov 2008 at 3:42 pm ¶

Anti-Intellectualism: An African American Problem

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