Confused?

"Oreo, Sellout, or lost. That's what they call me. But why?

They say I don't act black enough, but what is acting black?

Do I have to speak improperly or act ghetto to be black?

Do I have to watch B.E.T all day and keep my sneaker game tight to act black?

Should I be politically and socially unaware?"

-Satya

That's a little excerpt from a poem I wrote in high school. Throughout H.S. I was called all the names mentioned above in addition to boughie. I was on the school's moot court and mock trial team. Junior year I was a grade senator and senior year I was the Vice President of student government. I was always pretty articulate and grew out of my "hood phase" fast. All these things I guess led to me being called an Oreo. (My HS was 60% Latina ,28% black, 6% Asian ,3% White and 3% other)

Why do some black people associate possessing the social graces, speaking proper English, and good grades with acting white? Why can't it just be dag she's on point or he's the sh*t. According to Dr. John Agbu some black kids have dumbed themselves down because they fear their peers will say they are "acting white". It appears this is a phenomenon is the black community. I was friends with Asian kids in HS and you can believe me when I tell when they did well in school no one said they were acting white. Has this happened because we as a people have lowered our expectations?

A few times in some of my classes some of my peers tried to question my "blackness". They'd ask me what rapper I thought was the best, who the current tracks that were out, who was on the cover of the latest Source or XXL, what videos were on 106& Park etc... And I would think to myself what kind of fuckery is this? No one ever told me you had to pass a test to be black.

As a result of not really being understood or accepted by my black counterparts in HS I began to dislike young black people. When my peers began calling me an Oreo or mocking my amazing performance of soliloquies in English class I would respond with an off the wall comment about how I didn't like their kind anyhow. Funny thing is I would be insulting them and they didn't even realize it. I'd call some Jigaboos, porch monkeys, i'd talk about them being inferior b\c of their small brain size etc... (I learned about eugenics early on b\c my older cousins went to HBCUs and studied race). Was this nice? Not at all. It took a while but I've grown out of this phase. I had to make it to college to meet other black people like me.

With that said, we as a people need to raise our expectations of each other. Excelling in school is not acting white. It is called being a good student. Speaking proper English does not mean you are white, it means you are literate. So I know most of you that read here have heard of the "acting white" phenomenon. What do you make of it? Has your blackness ever been questioned?