A Dad reads Acting White? Rethinking Race in Post-Racial America

I love to read.  And yes, I know this is a parenting/dad blog, so why did I read a book entitled Acting White?  Rethinking Race in Post-Racial America?  When I was in junior high school I vividly remember some black kids in class making fun of the black kids who answered questions, did homework or studied.  As a tween, the idea that anybody would use that phrase to describe someone made no sense.

And then recently ESPN analyst, Rob Parker, questioned the blackness of Robert Griffin III, the quarterback for the Washington Redskins.  His comments made me immediately remember those that were made by the kids in junior high school.

Acting White? takes a look at the protocols and expectations that minorities have to navigate.   The first quarter of the book mainly focuses on situations that blacks would encounter, such as Acting Like a Black Woman? or its sister (no pun intended) chapter, Acting Like a (White) Woman?  About a quarter though the book shifts to more general cultural situations; like a Korean person changing their name to something more accepted by society.

The book has an academic feel to it, which makes it not as reader friendly as I hoped it would be.  My other problem with the book was that it had so many examples, that they prefaced, by saying that it was an extreme example that hadn’t happened.

I read the book looking for answers or hard data about why it happens.  In the end the book was so full of worst case scenarios, things that had never happened, stereotypes and more that it left me bored and frustrated.

I’m sure there’s some great source material for a book about rethinking race and acting white, but one is not it.  Acting White? Rethinking Race in Post-Racial America is  written by Devon W. Carbado and Mitu Gulati.  

I was provided with a copy of the book by NetGally for review purposes.