What is "Acting Black."

I came across a post from a lady on imdb who was discussing about 90210. To those who don't know, this show provides a unique experience behind a black kid who is adopted by a white family. It was an unfortunate event however, when she labeled Dixon as being a "White-Wash Kid." Of course, I responded back in an attempt to correct the errors of her ways, but it got me thinking into discussing these ridiculous terms such as "white wash" and "acting black."



"Acting Black" follows this strange notion that all black people has to act a certain way, anything outside this spectrum is considered "white wash" or "not acting black." What's even worse is that "Acting black" is always accompanied with rather negative stereotypes. He has to wear hip hop clothes, must love rap, hate white people, think the system is trying to keep them down, do horrible in school, and perhaps been in jail a few times. Often when I was living in michigan, I was claimed as acting white solely because I enjoyed Rock n Roll, not just hip hop, and because I wanted to do good in school. For some unexplainable reason, getting an education means you want to be like white people. I could never figure out for the life of me where did they get this rather ridiculous notion. But after a while, I did not care. I wasn't going to fit inside anybody's bubble, I was just going to be me.



The sad notion is the more I became myself, the less black friends I had. It was as if I could not be accepted if didn't fit inside their idea of what a black person is suppose to be. In essence, it's a shame that after all americans of african descent been through to remove labels of the past, that some are now imposing labels on ourselves. Only if we can accept our differences can we move forward towards the next step.