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Running Head: CULTURAL CRITICISM OF ACTING “WHITE”

Cultural Criticism in Buck’s “Acting White”

Joseph Early

Arizona State University

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Reflection

In this cultural criticism of “Acting White” I believe that to the best of my abilities I

responded to the prompt, created a claim and assertively used evidence to support it. I think that

with more practice my writing will succeed not only in the way that I craft my argument, but in

the way that I use APA formatting. One thing that I feel I need to improve in my writing is

expanding on my ideas, giving them greater depth and a clearer understanding. I feel I get to a

point where I put the minimum amount of details, thinking that they suffice, then realizing that I

could have gone deeper. Had I dived more in depth; I would have had a lasting impact on the

audience as they could understand the argument I was conveying. I feel that a very weak point in

this essay is my formatting on APA, which I am not too familiar with.

Overall, I believe that this essay reflects good work that needs more shaping and refining

in order to be great work. Improving my writing is one goal of mine for my freshman year of

college, I think I will achieve that goal if I continue to push myself harder as a writer.
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African Americans in this county have persevered through the oppression against their

race. Instances of suppression have come in the form of slavery, Jim Crow, and the lasting

tensions from the past that continue to leak into todays’ culture. This culture has combined to

create an environment where many blacks feel as if they are not an equal member of society. All

of the elements of these forms of racism, have bonded, creating a lasting effect that will take

generations to dismantle the systematic mindsets. One effect of is people labeling black people

who do not act stereotypically black, “white.” What does it mean to “act black?” Stewart Buck

describes in his article “Acting White,” the cause, meaning and impact of the words, “acting

white”. Buck in his article uses pathos and logos to put forth his argument to the reader that the

division between blacks both inside the black community and with other races comes from a

mishandling of integration, the exposing of without the properly ensuring that all groups were

represented in a post-integrated period, and the natural connections that divide humans.

Integration during the Civil Rights Movement moved minorities from a closed, sheltered, and

segregated life to one that integrated them into the mainstream society. Buck claims that

desegregation was done in a way that was not beneficial to blacks, leading to more subtle forms

of racism seen today.

In the article, pathos is used to explain why some blacks are harassed for trying to excel

academically and also explaining the natural connections humans seek from each other. Blacks

who tried to advance themselves or associated themselves with Caucasians were called, “white.”

Buck’s understanding of discreet racism, that mostly the targeted groups of people understand,

stems from time period change, different education levels, and socioeconomic situations. As

humans, who we are primarily has to do with the surrounding environment we are raised in and

exposed to. What ethnicity are we? What type of money we you come from? What level of
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education do we have? What zip code do we live in? These are surface-level labels that people

tend to use to determine if they relate or not. Buck points out that black kids who average a grade

point average of 3.5 or better are also labeled as “white” for attempting to achieving

academically, which white kids to do. (Buck, 2014, p. 640) Buck addresses the fact that a white

students who strive to do well in school is socially acceptable, but address the double standard,

“a black student who is too eager in class may be seen as trying to curry favor with the mostly

white teachers and where the advanced classes or academic clubs are predominately white.”

(Buck, 2014, p. 640). Buck sites this from Harvard economist Roland Fryer. Bucks’ use of

pathos here serves to explain that when black students attempt to better themselves academically,

they are harassed because of the people that they are exposed to while achieving an education.

Bucks’ writing is geared towards a broad audience who can understand these issues as a person

of color or an outsider who can empathize with the struggles of these students. Thus, allowing

for a different emotional reaction depending on who you are as the audience. If you are white, it

might evoke you to feel sympathy; while if you are black “white” it could evoke the emotional

reaction of sadness or anger. Buck also invokes pathos when he says, “the entire history of the

world shows that people of different races and nationalities are often hostile toward one another,

even over cultural or ethnic differences that are completely imperceptible to outsiders” (Buck,

2014, p. 642). The pathos that is invoked here works to address why we tend to see people in

other ways, in which they would not describe themselves.

Buck in his critic of the culture that we have believes that it is only natural to want to be

more divided, assisting his logos claim. Humans tend to primarily associate with those who have

stark similarities. These come from every aspect of life: music taste, sport fans, location,

financial status and most commonly with race. Humans as tribal creatures naturally relate to
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those that have similarities with us, but Buck addresses the fact that human will also find a way

to further the divide. This need for division creates different sub-groups, Buck says, “the human

drive to categorize is so strong that people will differentiate themselves from another group even

based on slight differences that have no rational basis at all” (Buck, 2010, p. 642). Logos is

apparent in this article though the use of factual claims that come from statistics and have been

exemplified though past collected and interpreted data. It only makes sense that humans tend to

gravitate towards those that relate to them on similar levels. The misperception of homework is a

claim that is deeply flawed in some eyes. Buck says, “…many academic studies show that some

black children think of doing homework as “acting white” (Buck, 2010, p. 641). While he

addresses the fact that not all studies show this, he points out that these studies are “flawed: they

rely on limited anecdotal evidence or on black children’s report of popularity” (Buck, 2010, p.

641). One division that Buck acknowledges is the one between black people but can also work

in regard to any social group, “special venom is directed to the insider who breaks ranks and

treats outsiders with respect” (Buck,2010, p.644). Buck uses this point to demonstrate how

blacks view other blacks who are perceived as too friendly toward whites. It serves to show that

the racial divide from the past is still relevant today. The acknowledging of this serves to address

the point that moving away from where you identify or look like you identify from can be seen

as an abundance of that group or lifestyle, when as Buck points out it is not. This is really

prevalent in the black community. Examples are when many African Americans see other

African Americans in interracial relationships or surround themselves with different people than

the grew up with, it to some, conveys the tone of abandonment.

Buck’s cultural critic of a contrasting America, one between races and the other a battle

in the same community is one that shows the stark differences in the way communities view
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certain things. Buck uses an appeal to emotion and an appeal to logic to demonstrate how we as

human view the division in our society when it comes to societal issues, specifically race issues.

The idea of race is one that complicates things, especially within certain communities, but Buck

has taught us that at the end of the day, we are all humans and should be understanding of what

we say and how we do things, establishing how humans need to be aware of the effects speech

and societal divisions have on groups when it is not their fault.

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References

Buck, S. (2014). Acting White, The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation. New Haven: Yale

University Press