The Acting White Phenomenon

Diversity Matters with Oscar Holmes IV

Season 3 Episode 6

Episode Title: The Acting White Phenomenon

Guest: Dr. Myles Durkee

 

Diversity Matters with Oscar Holmes IV is a podcast that explores all things diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) related. In each episode, Oscar and his guests have lively discussions around DEI topics, explore the latest research on the topic, and discuss the implications so that listeners will be more knowledgeable about the topics and be able to apply the insights to their lives.

 

Show Summary: “When individuals don't fit that very strategic, limited profile of how we expect each racial group to behave, that can leave them vulnerable to being accused of acting white.”

 

Forming your identity and achieving successful academic status has become a significant factor in discrimination and stereotyping in America. We see this issue primarily in middle school up until college and even in a professional setting. To be discriminated against by other races is one thing, but to be pointed out by your community has become a phenomenon that we now call Acting White.

 

Dr. Myles Durkee, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at The University of Michigan, joins us in this episode. He has won numerous awards for his research, where he examines cultural invalidations perpetrated by in-group and out-group members to determine how these experiences are associated with critical psychosocial results. 

 

We deep dive into different scenarios and people’s backgrounds, where these accusations are often involved, and what circumstances we often link to this behaviour. Does Acting White only accuse people who speak a particular accent besides their race and how you dress? Does it go beyond academic accomplishments? 

 

Dr. Durkee sheds light on the intensity of this experience and how it affects the people involved in these incidents of invalidation. Learn self-protective strategies to help mitigate adverse outcomes when dealing with the Acting White phenomenon.

 

3 Exceptional Highlights:

 

• Essentially, by behaving in a way that doesn't fit with the societal stereotypes associated with a racial group, they can be vulnerable to being accused of acting white by their peers, family members, strangers, and sometimes even teachers. 
• If you're behaving in a way that goes against the cultural norms, or the cultural tendencies, then your peers likely have the same racial group. They will judge you now as an individual and less so as an ambassador of the racial group. 
• These cultural validations, and the acting white accusations, tend to emerge around elementary school for most individuals, pick up the pace at middle school, and hit a peak during high school.

Show Highlights: 

 

The importance of context in Acting White labels

 

5:05 Dr. Myles Durkee

 

• Within that context, the school setting's cultural climate and racial composition have significant influence. So we think about the racial composition when you're in a school and are in the majority group, even if you are a person of colour; you're much more likely to be perceived and judged as an individual because you're in the majority group.

 

6:13 Dr. Myles Durkee

 

• When these groups are in the extreme minority, the stakes are higher to represent the group in a positive light. And any of you who come from a marginalised group, it's now to protect the group's reputation from trying not to confirm some of these negative stereotypes.

 

The profiles of students who experience Acting White accusations

 

12:29 Dr. Myles Durkee

 

• The research literature has heavily focused on black folks with this dynamic, but it happens to most groups of colour in teenagers. So when we measure data, most of our data has been with black and Latinx. Late adolescence and young adults. 

 

13:01 Dr. Myles Durkee

 

• In terms of the single trait in which people are most likely to be accused of acting white, it's hands down their style of speech. So above and beyond everything else, based on how you talk, it will leave you the most vulnerable to being accused of acting white.

 

Are females more targeted with the act of white label than male?

 

27:23 Dr. Myles Durkee

 

• If women of colour defy a racial stereotype, regardless of the attribute, then they're much more likely to be accused of acting white for defying that racial stereotype.

 

29:03 Dr. Myles Durkee

 

• But for men of colour, the same behaviour, speaking correctly, can now be accused based on their race, their gender, and their sexuality. 

The psychology of the perpetrators

 

29:03 Dr. Myles Durkee

 

• It's not necessarily how frequently they have victimized themselves by acting white in the past. But more so, how disturbing and distressful those accusations compel them to perpetrate more frequently in the future. 

 

Important Links:

Dr. Myles Durkee

 

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Episode Sponsor Links: 

Philadelphia Ballet

 

Producer Links:

WH Consulting Firm

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