#6. Acting White

We are treading in water today few Black people ever dare to wade into: it is an area and “life-style” change for a Black person that is a more uncomfortable subject of conversation with their parents and peers than announcing they are a homosexual.

In a way, this is probably deeper water for Black people to tread in and highly detrimental to the credo of “keeping it real”, and will forever cause Black people to lose their access and credibility to and with the Black community – at least until you pass away.

Black people can kill dogs; beat their popular Billboard song chart-topping girlfriend, and never lose their appeal with Black people. However, for a Black person to pass the Racial Rubicon into the realm of Acting White is a path that nary a Black person has recovered from in his natural life.

To Act White is a mortal and moral sin the Black community, a step-toward giving legitimacy to The Man and bestowing upon white people cultural dominance and allowing the subjugation of that Black persons Blackness. To compromise your integrity as a Black person and Act White is a direct slap in the face to the entire Black community.

Acting White is defined as:

"Acting white is a pejorative term usually applied to African-Americans, although also within other non-white ethnic groups Latinos or Hispanics, which refers to a person's perceived betrayal of their culture by incorporating the social expectations of white society.Success in education in particular is seen as a form of selling out by being disloyal to one's culture."

To Act White, according to Black people, is to:

• · Study
• · Read
• · Excel at school
• · Work
• · Vote for Republicans
• · Play Golf
• · Talk Coherently
• · Dress neatly
• · Go to college
• · Pay taxes and not rely on the government assistance
• · Marriage and fidelity

You see, Acting White is the Scarlett Letter of the Black community and shunning will occur. Hester Prynne and her punishment is a suitable for the Black person who Acts White, as the characteristics described above allows white people to discern a Black turncoat and vice-versa.

Again, being accused of Acting White is reminiscent of the Red-Baiting of the 1950s, and the Black person who is accused of consorting with the enemy will be irreparably harmed by said accusation – valid or not – and will never be qualified to “keep it real” again.

Black people have worked too hard to move from the ominous shadow of white people and supplanting them as the ultimate cultural standard-bearer in America. Remember, 13 percent of the population of the United States is worshipped by everyone else, largely based on their athletic achievements and ability to “keep it real”.

To Act White then is to consort with the enemy who for centuries enslaved and held down Black people and thus a true traitor to the cause of “Living in a Black world”.

Stuff Black People Don’t Like is proud to include – for the benefit of everyone reading – Acting White in its ever-expanding catalogue of SBPDL, for trying to embrace the moral code and mores of a hated enemy is to Black people a far worse offense than being a Quisling.

Consorting with the enemy is one thing – trying to replicate and Act White is a horse of a different color – an attempt to repudiate Black heritage and engage in a racial transformation too horrifying to believe.

Black people are encouraged to refrain from Acting White, lest they want to be ostracized by Black people. For if they do decide to Act White, they may then be forced to become yet another Stuff Black People Don’t Like: the Token Black.

The following video below accurately depicts Acting White in action. From the popular show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the character of Carleton Banks is a Black person who Acts White and is constantly abused for doing so by the cool, hip Will Smith (who is a model Black person).

Smith constantly mocks Banks, and in this scene, is even seen wearing a “Blackman” t-shirt, to showcase his “keeping it real” credentials to the Acting White traitor.