Acting White?: Rethinking Race in "Post-Racial" America

by Devon W. Carbado, Mitu Gulati

What does it mean to "act black" or "act white"? Is race merely a matter of phenotype, or does it come from the inflection of a person's speech, the clothes in her closet, how she chooses to spend her time and with whom she chooses to spend it? What does it mean to be "really" black, and who gets to make that judgment?

In Acting White?, leading scholars of race and the law Devon Carbado and Mitu Gulati argue that, in spite of decades of racial progress and the pervasiveness of multicultural rhetoric, racial judgments are often based not just on skin color, but on how a person conforms to behavior stereotypically associated with a certain race. Specifically, racial minorities are judged on how they "perform" their race. This performance pervades every aspect of their daily life, whether it's the clothes they wear, the way they style their hair, the institutions with which they affiliate, their racial politics, the people they befriend, date or marry, where they live, how they speak, and their outward mannerisms and demeanor. Employing these cues, decision-makers decide not simply whether a person is black but the degree to which she or he is so. Relying on numerous examples from the workplace, higher education, and police interactions, the authors demonstrate that, for African Americans, the costs of "acting black" are high, and so are the pressures to "act white." But, as the authors point out, "acting white" has costs as well.

Provocative yet never doctrinaire, Acting White? will boldly challenge your assumptions and make you think about racial prejudice from a fresh vantage point.

Genres: Anti Racist, Race, Politics, Law, Nonfiction, Sociology, Social Justice

216 pages, Hardcover

First published November 19, 2012

About the author

Devon Carbado is the Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and the former Associate Vice Chancellor of BruinX for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. He teaches Constitutional Criminal Procedure, Constitutional Law, Critical Race Theory, and Criminal Adjudication. He has won numerous teaching awards, including being elected Professor of the Year by the UCLA School of Law classes of 2000 and 2006 and received the Law School's Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003 and the University's Distinguished Teaching Award, the Eby Award for the Art of Teaching in 2007.

Reviews

[Bruce Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most important book I've read in months -- clearly expresses multiple acts and decisions all (not a dichotomous question) people, regardless of markers, make as we interact with "others" that don't look, act, or speak like we do.

The authors provide not only important current debates, scenarios, and legal cases, but smartly offer thought exercises to help the reader understand the deep implications of race in America today.

Every educator must read this book. Every student should read this book.

[Ted Lehmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important book exploring the way in which primarily African-Americans, but more generally everyone, must "work their identity" to become part of and progress in America. Written by two law school professors, it is densely argued and very persuasive. Sometimes went pretty deep in the weeds for me, but filled enough with startling insights into organizational behavior that it was well worth the effort. My full review is now live on my blog: http://tinyurl.com/d8hj29n

[Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important book about race, gender and corporate. It is set in the US context but the thesis of the working identity and that it entails can be transported into the South Africa context.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this before others discovered it. Now I can't renew it.4/26/2013


I should take this to OPA Diversity Com

I took this book to April SMRT and showed it to the DOJ? lawyer. I read some of it to him and discussed the constructed identity concept with him. Then I took it to Poly SM munch and we all discussed it's relevance to various sexual orientations.






Table of Contents


Acknowledgments ix
Prologue: Acting Out the Racial Double Bind 1 (20)
1) employers not only choose whites, they choose blacks who act like whites....racial salience makes a black person less desirable than racially palatable blacks to employers who prefer white culture to diverse culture
2)Many blacks will therefore cover up their racial salience to get a chance at getting a job or a promotion
3)Employees will want their employer to experience their blackness as a diversity profit not a racial deficit. This calls for a person to become skilled at creating a Working Identity which is used to signal the employer just how black an employee want to present as.


All this equally applies to women, any other racial group, all sexual orientations besides the dominant cultural paradigm of white, male, hetero, able-bodied

4)Working identity requires time effort and energy. This work is not acknowledged but is required.
5)Working Identity is behaving/acting the dominant cultural paradigm in all situations of cultural conformity such as getting served at a restaurant, getting stopped by a cop, shopping in a store, running for political office, applying for admission to any educational institution, applying for a grant

6)All this work is costly. It not only takes effort. It has to be developed in time. Every minute spent performing this role is spent other than in developing one's actual person. It also distances a person from members of one's own membership group. This contributes to internalized hatred of one's own group. Little black children may wish they were white. Little girls may wish they were boys. Little gay children may wish they were straight. All this applies to teens and adults.
7)Working identity issues flow from racial discrimination but can't be handled in the law/courts as racial issues. How white/hetero/male/able-bodied do you have to behave to justifiably get courts involved?

8)Working identity applies to everyone. This fitting in applies to white men as well.
9)Working identity applies to women of course

10)We all have working identity.





1 Why Act White?
21 (25)

2 Talking White
46 (22)

3 Acting Like a Black Woman
68 (12)

4 Acting Like a (White) Woman
80 (16)

5 (Not) Acting Criminal
96 (20)

6 Acting Diverse
116 (18)

7 Acting Within the Law
134 (15)

8 Acting White to Help Other Blacks
149 (18)
Epilogue: Acting Beyond Black and White 167 (4)
Notes 171 (22)
Index 193

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new here. Worth a read if you're new to the subject. A discussion of racial stereotypes in the workplace. Somewhat depressing; the authors argue that attempts to dispel a certain stereotype can reinforce another. I didn't like how the majority of the illustrations/examples were lawyers suing each other.

[Patrice Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review is posted to my blog!

http://triceynikki.blogspot.com/2013/...