A black head teacher told me a story of his early days at a failing inner-city school. The job was a thankless one and everybody was waiting anxiously for the arrival of the new ‘super-head’ (the school had gone through three leaders in two years). In the playground it was leaked that the new head was an old-school type from Jamaica.
During his first encounter with the students, they asked him how many children he had. He told them he had one and that she lived with him and his wife.
‘No sir, how many do you have in Jamaica?’ they asked. He replied: ‘None.’ They jeered, ‘Oh sir you’re not a yard man, not a real Jamaican — you’re acting white.’
This, I’m afraid, is typical. For black families in Britain and United States there has long been a dilemma: the more you adopt middle-class behaviours, the more you are perceived as ‘acting white’ and having betrayed your roots. You are a ‘coconut’ or an ‘Oreo cookie’.
Among poor black school-age children, particularly boys, anxiety about being seen to be acting white is a huge barrier to getting on. In the US, much work has been done on why pupils fear being seen to be acting white. As long ago as 2004, Barack Obama, then a senator, warned that ‘Children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is “acting white”.’
The ‘W’ word is directed at boys and girls who dare to speak in standard English, answer in class or involve themselves in after-school activities. This attitude can do real damage to the lives of black children — and increasingly of white children, too.
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