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
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or usage:
“When the history of guilt is written, parents who refuse their children money will be right up there in the Top Ten.”
—Erma Brombeck (20th century)
“... that there is no other way,
That the history of creation proceeds according to
Stringent laws, and that things
Do get done in this way, but never the things
We set out to accomplish and wanted so desperately
To see come into being.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Girls who put out are tramps. Girls who don’t are ladies. This is, however, a rather archaic usage of the word. Should one of you boys happen upon a girl who doesn’t put out, do not jump to the conclusion that you have found a lady. What you have probably found is a lesbian.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951)