Among people who are educated on the subject or simply can read statistics, there is little disagreement on how black students under-achieve in the classroom in comparison to their white counterparts, even when controlling for socio-economic circumstance. However, there is a debate about whether culture or structure has a larger effect on black success in schools. I think that culture has a way of informing the structure. Specifically, in this instance I think that the “acting white” slur contributes to causing structural inequities. It can also be said that the structure is informing the culture and is the reason some black students say others “act white”.

Black students who tell other black students that they are white because of their academic prowess affect the will of black students who want and capable of academic excellence. This can cause a systematic shift by encouraging black kids not to take the most difficult classes, and this would help create the structural inequity, among other causes. Also, it is possible that the fact that white students are much more prevalent in higher-level classes causes the “acting white” slur to exist. Black students mostly see white kids in those classes and therefore want associate academic success with whiteness. This leads them to call some fellow black students white and further perpetuates the system as the black students who are called white continued to be discouraged.