A Harvard University economist offers evidence in a new study to bolster the controversial theory that high-achieving black and Latino teenagers are shunned by their peers in school for 鈥渁cting white.鈥�
Roland G. Fryer, an assistant professor of economics at the university, analyzed data on a nationally representative sample of 90,000 students in grades 7-12. For the most part, he found that minority students who get good grades are less popular in their own schools than white students who do well academically. But he also concluded that the phenomenon varied from school to school.
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African-American and Latino students with good grades were more likely to pay a social price for their success in more integrated schools, he said, and less likely to do so in private or predominantly black schools.
鈥淚f the question is how much can 鈥榓cting white鈥� explain the average achievement gap between typical white and black students, it can鈥檛, because you don鈥檛 see it at predominantly black schools,鈥� said Mr. Fryer. 鈥淏ut if the question is why there aren鈥檛 more minority students at elite institutions like Harvard, Princeton, or the University of Michigan, 鈥榓cting white鈥� could explain that underrepresentation.鈥�
The study, scheduled to be published this week in the periodical Education Next, is drawing criticism from scholars who have also tested the 鈥渁cting white鈥� idea.
They contend that Mr. Fryer ignored other evidence in the field and confused a strict definition of what it means to be accused of 鈥渁cting white鈥� with vague notions of popularity. They also argue that his work distracts attention from other possible causes of the achievement gap that separates black and Latino students from their higher-achieving white and Asian-American peers.
鈥淭his blames the victim and takes our attention away from what really matters, which is structural inequalities in educational opportunities for black and white students,鈥� said James Ainsworth, an associate professor of sociology at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Friendships Measured
The 鈥渁cting white鈥� or 鈥渃ultural opposition鈥� theory emerged in the 1980s, when sociologists coined the term to describe how African-American students in a District of Columbia high school dismissed academically oriented behavior as 鈥渁cting white.鈥� Nearly 20 years later, though, research on the idea is still mixed.
For his study, Mr. Fryer used a database known as the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Surveyed students listed their closest male and female friends, up to five of each. Mr. Fryer looked at how often students鈥� names appeared on one another鈥檚 lists and made adjustments to account for the fact that some 鈥渃ount鈥� more socially.
鈥淭he more frequently a peer is listed by others, the more weight I assign to showing up on his or her list,鈥� he writes. He found that high-achieving minority students had fewer and less popular friends鈥攂oth within their own racial and ethnic groups and across such groups鈥攖han did their white peers.
Ronald A. Ferguson, who is also an economist at Harvard, said he disagrees with his colleague鈥檚 interpretations but not his statistics.
Whether black students with good grades have lots of friends is not the same as whether they get stigmatized for 鈥渁cting white,鈥� Mr. Ferguson said.
鈥淭he notion of 鈥榓cting white鈥� is that there鈥檚 something about high achievement that black students associate with being white,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd that, in an attempt to maintain their own distinctive, nonwhite identity, they鈥檙e resisting things associated with white behaviors.鈥�
Though Mr. Fryer agrees that his measure does not directly test that idea, he said his work brings some nuance to the debate. For instance, he concludes that:
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鈥� In private schools, high-achieving black students were more popular than white students who did well.
鈥� Black males with good grades paid a higher social price in integrated schools. They were one- seventh as popular, by Mr. Fryer鈥檚 measure, as white male peers.
鈥� The 鈥渁cting white鈥� effect is twice as large in relatively integrated schools than it is in less integrated ones.
鈥淩acially integrated settings only reinforce pressures to toe the ethnic line,鈥� Mr. Fryer writes.
William A. Darity Jr., a sociologist at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said academic tracking in schools might also explain why high-achieving minority students in diverse schools seem more socially isolated.
In his own research, looking at 11 North Carolina schools, for instance, he found evidence of the 鈥渁cting white鈥� pressure in only one school. In that high school, black students made up half the enrollment, but only two African-Americans took Advanced Placement classes.
鈥淚 think Mr. Fryer鈥檚 paradox would have been resolved,鈥� he said, 鈥渋f he had investigated the racial composition of classes.鈥�
