History of Usage
The phrase was coined by Signithia Fordham and first popularized in her 1986 study, Black Students' School Success: Coping with the "Burden of 'Acting White.'" The question of whether or not acting white attitudes really exist has been debated back and forth in academic literature. The term rose to further media prominence when Bill Cosby used it in a famous May 2004 speech. Black people who are accused of acting white are sometimes referred to as Black Anglo-Saxons, a term coined by comedian Paul Mooney. The 2008 election of Barack Obama as President of the United States created a public discussion that the acting white attitude may be waning.
Read more about this topic: Acting White
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