Acting The "Cool"

[Dark Switch]

Observed Phenomenon: Many non-white (especially black males) youngsters who prefer to engage in activities which typify a street, tough, gangster, sports and entertainment focused, partying, getting high & bling bling idea of what it means to live as a black person. Moreover, thinking that the people activity of Entertainment will have more importance and give them more esteem than Education in later life.


Recent Reports: According to Harvard professor of sociology Orlando Patterson, in A Poverty of the Mind a New York Times article of March 26 2006:

"Sociological investigation has found, in fact, that one popular explanation — that black children who do well are derided by fellow blacks for "acting white" — turns out to be largely false, except for those attending a minority of mixed-race schools.

An anecdote helps explain why: Several years ago, one of my students went back to her high school to find out why it was that almost all the black girls graduated and went to college whereas nearly all the black boys either failed to graduate or did not go on to college. Distressingly, she found that all the black boys knew the consequences of not graduating and going on to college ("We're not stupid!" they told her indignantly).

SO why were they flunking out? Their candid answer was that what sociologists call the "cool-pose culture" of young black men was simply too gratifying to give up. For these young men, it was almost like a drug, hanging out on the street after school, shopping and dressing sharply, sexual conquests, party drugs, hip-hop music and culture, the fact that almost all the superstar athletes and a great many of the nation's best entertainers were black."


Hypothesis: If non-white males are not concerned with being derided for "acting white" (i.e, attaining the tools of literary and numeracy, and the intelligence to ask questions and follow logic) why do they not want to graduate and go on to college?

Non-white youth prefer the self-esteem gained from association with activities considered authentically non-white, because:

a) In a racist (white supremacist) system culture they believe these are the only avenues of earning a living and respect open to them.

and

b) studying hard in class and pursuing higher education is considered by some of them, "acting white" (the opposite of affecting a "cool-pose").


Experiment: Attempt to find out what the different attitudes are among the 3 types of people (non-white, white, and white supremacist (racist) around the areas of Entertainment and Education.


Questions To Ask:

1. Is studying hard in the classroom something which makes a person less "cool"?

2. Are you a white person?

3. Are you a non-white person?

4. Are white people and their culture "cool"

5. Are non-white people and their culture "cool"?

6. Is it possible for a white person to study hard in school and still be "cool"?

7. Is it possible for a non-white person to study hard in school and still be "cool"?

8. If showing-off about sexual conquests, taking party drugs, worshipping hip-hop music and culture, idolising black superstar athletes and entertainers equates to "acting non-white/black" is not the opposite "acting white"?

9. Is adopting a "cool pose" the best method of stopping the smartest and most powerful people in the known universe practicing white supremacy (racism).


Expected Results:

Varied responses are expected depending on if person is a white person, or non-white person, or more mature in age rather than a teenager.
_________________
Most white people hate Black people. The reason that most white people hate Black people is because whites are not black people. - Neely Fuller Jr.
quoted in Cress Welsing (1991)

[Josh]

DS, can I get a definition of "cool" from you?

Thanks.

Josh

[Dark Switch]

[Josh]

DS,

what does your experiment attempt to prove?


Josh

[Dark Switch]

[Josh]

[Dark Switch]

[Josh]