Acting white : the curious history of a racial slur / Ron Christie.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue : a new day or deja vu? -- Uncle Tom's cabin : the genesis of acting white -- Booker T. Washington : a turn of the century Uncle Tom acting white? -- Plessy volume Ferguson : a long journey towards equality -- W.E.B. Dubois : the souls of Black folk and the roar of the Niagara movement -- The rise of Marcus Garvey versus the roar of the Niagara movement : who best to lead -- Blacks forward at the dawn of the Harlem Rennaissance? -- Brown vs. Board of Education : a milestone to equality -- World (Martin Luther King's the measure of a man) versus separate and unequal -- (Malcolm X's the end of white world supremacy) -- Black power, moral relativism and radical chic -- Affirmative action -- The divide : upwardly mobile Black America and the urban poor -- Justice Clarence Thomas : an Uncle Tom acting white by selling-out? -- The president who happens to be Black versus a Black president : the coming rise of colorless values, or not? -- The death of a racial slur : the new underground railroad : transporting Black people to real equality -- Appendix of primary documents: Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Exposition address -- Plessy volume Ferguson -- Brown and others volume Board of Education of Topeka et al -- Barack Obama's keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

A history of the slanderous phrase "acting white" demonstrates the backlash against successful, well-mannered, or well-educated African Americans while tracing the history of the insult's usage from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to Bill Cosby's controversial NAACP speech in 2004.