

To my young Thugs - chegra84
http://chestergrant.posterous.com/to-my-young-thugs

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acangiano
This is good advice regardless of race. Yet, it's important to have successful
individuals belonging to a minority be good role models and encourage others
in the same minority directly.

Achieving your goals takes a lot of "acting white". Promoting it as something
worthwhile, fun, and acceptable for black kids may lead to more children and
teenagers considering it seriously.

~~~
cheez
FYI, acting white is no longer a thing.

~~~
acangiano
How so? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_white>

~~~
cheez
"The term is controversial, and its precise meaning is hard to define"

First, if you want to talk about "African Americans", you need to realize that
everything has been set against them for a few hundred years _in America_.

Do they adjust for this in their "studies"? No.

Acting "white" was a term for kids at some point in the 90s. It's not an
overriding concern these days.

I sometimes marvel at how well some American blacks have done despite the fact
that the system has been stacked.

> Achieving your goals takes a lot of "acting white".

This is just ridiculous.

~~~
acangiano
> It's not an overriding concern these days.

Quoting wikipedia: "Nevertheless, the idea that minority students suffer from
the negative prejudices of their ethnic peers is currently accepted as
generally true in much of the American media—as expressed in articles in The
New York Times, Time magazine, and The Wall Street Journal—and in American
society."

> This is just ridiculous.

Let's drop the term if you don't like it or if you think it is obsolete, but
the feeling behind the statement "Achieving your goals takes a lot of acting
white." is anything but ridiculous. I used the term "acting white" as a way to
convey success, particularly in school, and aiming high while being belittled
for it by your peers.

Replace it with "Achieving your goals takes a lot of ambition and hard work
often against peer pressure" if you prefer.

~~~
cheez
You didn't read the same article you quoted dude.

> Though the study's conclusion gained a popular foothold and has been
> espoused by figures such as Bill Cosby in his famous May 2004 speech, a
> later study challenged its validity. In 2003, Karolyn Tyson, a sociologist,
> and William Darity, Jr., an economist, both at the University of North
> Carolina at Chapel Hill, directed an 18 month study at eleven North
> Carolinian schools. The study concluded that white and black students have
> essentially the same attitudes about scholastic achievement; students in
> both groups want to succeed in school and show higher levels of self-esteem
> when they do better in school.

You just want to use "acting white" as a euphemism for black students as
underachievers. Those days are gone. Long gone.

If you use that term these days around the youth, you _will_ be laughed at.

------
ootachi
This is all fine until level 10. $4M is not easy to achieve, involves quite a
bit of luck, and is more than most people will need. It's fine to aim high,
but don't frame it as some kind of "level" that you have to achieve or else
you've failed.

