Premium
Weighing the “burden of ‘acting white’”: Are there race differences in attitudes toward education?
Author(s) -
Cook Philip J.,
Ludwig Jens
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6688(199721)16:2<256::aid-pam4>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - alienation , white (mutation) , race (biology) , ethnography , peer pressure , psychology , social psychology , racial differences , academic achievement , graduation (instrument) , ethnic group , sociology , gender studies , developmental psychology , political science , biochemistry , chemistry , geometry , mathematics , anthropology , law , gene
Recent reports by ethnographic researchers and media sources suggest that many African American students view academic success as a form of “acting white,” and that peer pressure reduces their level of effort and performance. This article analyzes the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 to answer three questions: (1) do blacks experience greater alienation toward school than non‐Hispanic whites?; (2) do blacks incur social penalties from their peers for succeeding academically?; and (3) if so, are these “achievement penalties” greater than those for whites? Our analysis suggests the answer to each of the three questions is “apparently not.”