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.
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.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.