Boys of Baraka & Acting White

It was interesting to see while watching the film how different people’s lives are even though we live in a country that has one government.  You would think that education would be education and it would be the same for everybody in every state but sadly this is not the case.  Although my education system was not the best, I feel privileged that it was adequate enough to supply me with enough knowledge to continue my education at one of the top tier institutions in Texas.  It was interesting to see how dependent the families were on their school system and the future of their children.  The resources were low but in such a bad neighborhood, it was great yet sad to see that the only positive influences they have are in a education system that is essentially failing them. 

The factors that effect the achievement gap are very different between blacks and whites but in examining the article it appeared that blacks were negatively reflected throughout.  In most school systems there is rarely a case where blacks are the minority of the school. This is only the case if the institution is in a predominately black neighborhood.  Also, considering this is the case, it is very rare to see a school dominated by black teachers.  This can have many negative effects on a black student.  Where whites are in classrooms with several of their peers that have similar demographic commonalities, Blacks are less inclined to feel comfortable because there are very few students that resemble them and also there is no person of “power” that looks like them that they can confide in. 

Coming from a biracial family of a white mother, I grew up definitely on the border line of “acting white.” It was not because my mother was half white and my dad a quarter but because I did not “behave” as other blacks did.  It was also easier for me to pointed out as acting white because my skin was much fairer than most.  When people characterized me as acting white, I had to really understand their idea of what white was.  It appeared that because I pronunciated my words and surrounded myself with all types of ethnicities as opposed to grouping myself in a clan of all blacks that I was pretending to be something I was not.  Also it was said because I chose to wear “white” brand name clothes like American Eagle, Abercrombie, and Express.  I would have never thought that my preference in clothing would strip me of my ethnicity.