Acting white

Heh...Got this from my cousin last week. Literally "I bet you dress up in a tie and act all white (well-spoken and educated, I suppose) for a job interview." Why yes, dear cousin...Yes I do. Because I'm not going to get a job wearing a grill and a chain and Jordans and slangin' about my hustle.

I've run into it a few times in the military, but only from the really low-ranking. Anyone whose made it up to E5 or higher has obviously figured out that acting like an ignorant, violent hoodlum means you'll be treated like an ignorant, violent hoodlum - and all the ones with a gram of common sense would rather be treated like a responsible adult.

Of course, the best response I ever heard was from a black chief, who heard someone else getting mocked for "acting white" and he responded, "What, so he wants to get paid instead of kicked to the fucking curb? Hell yeah, act white, then maybe you can be making four grand a month like I am and own your own home in a neighborhood you don't have to worry about drive by shootings." Said mocker ended up getting kicked out three months later for drug use.

Oh, don't get me started on this shit: I've experienced it here in the UK, too!

Regarding the "reading=acting white" thing, in particular, it sounds like the flipside of something I remember being written by a white racist, along the lines of "if you wanna hide something from a nigger, put it in a book". Some people just gotta live the dream, it seems!