‘Acting White’ Is Old School

Economist Roland Fryer has done research on “acting white,” i.e. the phenomenon by which black children who excel academically are stigmatized by their peers.

Recently, he was in a New York City school and asked some of the seventh graders he was talking to whether they had ever heard the phrase “acting white.”

The kids laughed at him and said, “Of course, but that’s old school. Now it’s called ‘acting Asian.'”