My initial introduction to anthropologist Signithia Fordham's work was an article entitled "Black Students' School Success: Coping with the `Burden of Acting White,'" coauthored by John Ogbu. The 1986 article was a result of Fordham's participation in an ethnographic study (on which her dissertation was based) of a predominantly Black Washington, DC, high school. It postulated that some Black students do not achieve academic success because they relate academic success to "acting White." This form of resistance by students is based on the conflict between their perceptions of being Black and an American school curriculum based on White middle-class cultural values, which ignores and/or denigrates Black culture and Black people. The article also detailed the ambivalence and conflicts of Black students who were academically successful. Although widely disseminated and often cited in the educational literature, Fordham's article and thesis remained controverisal, as reflected in the work of several researchers such as McDermott, Mehan, Erickson, and Trueba.

Having since read several of Fordham's articles, I have anticipated this longer work. Blacked Out allows the reader to see the full extent of the ethnography on which her previous articles are based, and how the "acting White" theory was developed. I once had a professor who told his students to judge the credibility of a qualitative study by asking, "Can I believe this?" Because qualitative studies are not based on statistical methods, that is to say, numbers, the reader has to rely on the believability of the research and of the researcher's interpretation of the findings. Fordham's book is an excellent presentation of the original ethnographic study leading to the theory of acting White. It is well written and extensively documented, permitting the reader to determine for him/herself if the theory is supported by the data. I recommend this book even to those not familiar with the author's previous work, as it is important for anyone interested in the study of low-income minorities, school achievement, and the use of ethnography as a means of exploring this important topic.

D.S.A.