<p>It bothers me too when people say that I “act white”. It especially bothers me because I think it’s like saying black people aren’t capable of intelligent conversation and behaving in a civilized, mature manner. What’s worse is that more black people say that as opposed to white people. It’s that attitude that makes feel like I “fit in” with white people better but in reality I fit in the the AP students better where the majority happen to be white.</p>
<p>At the school where I go to our African-American population is around 80% yet in my AP’s there are only 2-3 black guys per class. I know of 5 other black guys who take AP level classes. There are about 4-6 black girls in an AP class but I know of many more black girls in the AP level classes as opposed to the guys. In each class, I’d the black representation per class is less than 25%. I think that is a dismal number in comparison to the total population. </p>
<p>It should also be noted that the majority of the students in our AP classes are labeled “gifted”. I am opposed to this because I did not meet the qualifications for “gifted” but I consistently do much better than my other classmates. </p>
<p>The honors classes at my school reflect an even greater gender disparity. I would say that 50% of the honors classes are comprised of black students but the majority of them are female. There are only 2-3 black male students in the honors level as well.</p>
<p>I think that one reason is the need for black guys to be cool and reflect the images that they see around them whereas black women typically want to achieve better than what’s around them. I also feel that it is harder for black women to find good strong husbands than for black men to find good strong wives.</p>