Acting Black: College, Identity, and the Performance of Race

In the optimism of the post-Civil Rights era, affirmative action was still novel and not yet facing the attacks of the present. Against this historical backdrop, Sarah Willie asked the question: How different was it to be Black at a historically Black university versus a traditionally White one? Acting Black contains interviews with nearly sixty African-American men and women who either attended Northwestern University, a predominantly White school, or Howard University, a predominantly Black school. In this poignant and perceptive book, Willie reveals the intransigence of racism, the power of friendship, the difference of class inequality and the need for an identity that is stable and flexible.
In Acting Black, Willie situates the personal stories of her own experience and those of her interviewees within a review of university policies regarding race. She offers suggestions for improvement for both White and Black universities seeking to make their campuses truly multicultural. In the tradition of The Agony of Education, Willie captures the painful dilemmas and ugly realities African Americans face on campus.