Acting white : the curious history of a racial slur / Ron Christie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Christie, Ron, 1969-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Attitudes.

African Americans.

White people--United States--Attitudes.

White people.

Race relations.

Psychological aspects.

Invective.

United States.

Invective--United States.

Communication--Social aspects--United States.

Communication.

Communication--Social aspects.

Social interaction--United States.

Social interaction.

United States--Race relations--Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

viii, 290 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2010.

Summary:

A history of the slanderous phrase "acting white" demonstrates the backlash against successful, well-mannered, or well-educated African Americans while tracing the history of the insult's usage from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to Bill Cosby's controversial NAACP speech in 2004.

Contents:

Prologue : a new day or deja vu?

Uncle Tom's cabin : the genesis of acting white

Booker T. Washington : a turn of the century Uncle Tom acting white?

Plessy v. Ferguson : a long journey towards equality

W.E.B. Dubois : the souls of Black folk and the roar of the Niagara movement

The rise of Marcus Garvey versus the roar of the Niagara movement : who best to lead

Blacks forward at the dawn of the Harlem Rennaissance?

Brown vs. Board of Education : a milestone to equality

World (Martin Luther King's the measure of a man) versus separate and unequal

(Malcolm X's the end of white world supremacy)

Black power, moral relativism and radical chic

Affirmative action

The divide : upwardly mobile Black America and the urban poor

Justice Clarence Thomas : an Uncle Tom acting white by selling-out?

The president who happens to be Black versus a Black president : the coming rise of colorless values, or not?

The death of a racial slur : the new underground railroad : transporting Black people to real equality

Appendix of primary documents: Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Exposition address

Plessy v. Ferguson

Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al

Barack Obama's keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780312599461

0312599463

OCLC:

606785220