Acting

“Is you is or is you ain’t black?” This is a question that many African Americans may have asked or be asking themselves. Because the black image is distorted in the media, and the culture in general, to look and be only a certain way, anything that differs from this central theme of “being black” is seen as awkward. This is most likely how the self-imposed stereotype of “acting white” has come along. It can be clearly seen that it would be quite difficult to “act white” because people of Caucasian descent act in all kinds of different ways, with optimistic and pessimistic attitudes, in different characters and stereotypes of their own. However “acting white” has been known to be portrayed as an African American individual that has chosen to speak properly and become serious about his or her life and future, and act in a manner that is not of the “ghetto” or “gangster” culture. In order to “act white” it must first be found out what it means to “act black” and evaluate the two to see if “acting white” does actually exist.

It would be easier to ask what black people have become today, because the answer would be practically everything; it would be more difficult to ask what it means to “be black” because it is probably seen different by so many people on their own definitional grounds. Therefore, it is exceedingly obvious that what black people have become, and what is seen as “being black” or “acting black” could come nowhere near to being the same. The same thing can be said about “acting white” and how all white people as a whole, truly behave.

“Silver Chips,” Montgomery Blair high school’s newspaper columnist Colby Chapman says that it’s