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Why does Roland Fryer use such imprecise language as "acting white"?

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on June 9, 2005 - 4:30am.
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Before I say anything else: white folks, you got the whole wrong idea.Black folks upbraid one another on occasion thus:

"You think you're white!"

As People of the Word, you should recognize there's a big difference between "You're doing things white people do" and "You think you're white."

On to the topic. In February of this year Mr. Fryer published An Economic Analysis of 'Acting White' with David Austen-Smith. From the abstract:

This paper formalizes a widely discussed peer effect entitled 'acting white' 'Acting White' is modeled as a two audience signaling quandary: signals that induce high wages can be signals that induce peer group rejection. Without peer effects, equilibria involve all ability types choosing different levels of education. 'Acting White' alters the equilibrium dramatically: the (possibly empty) set of lowest ability individuals and the set of highest ability individuals continue to reveal their type through investments in education; ability types in the middle interval pool on a common education level. Only those in the lower intervals are accepted by the group. The model's predictions fit many stylized facts in the anthropology and sociology literatures regarding social interactions among minority group members.

Wtf is a "stylized" fact? And that "equilibria" of "all ability types choosing different levels of education" is an unsupported assumption.

Two months later comes An Empirical Analysis of ‘Acting White’, where it is said:

In this paper, we focus on a highly controversial and well-publicized aspect of Black peer culture – the existence of a peer externality commonly referred to as ‘acting white.’ ‘Acting White’ describes a set of social interactions in which Black adolescents ridicule other black adolescents for investing in behaviors characteristic of whites (having an interest in ballet, raising their hand in class, or making good grades, e.g.).

Seems like we've got two distinct phenomena under discussion. Having formalized the theoretical peer effect, it would be good to use that same formalism whenever the terminology is used. Just so we can be sure he knows what (object) is being talked about.

Conflating multiple issues under a single term is a bad idea. One of the major obstacles to addressing the heritage of slavery in this country is that heritage causes different problems for folks on either side of the veil, yet those problems are called by a single name and a single solutions is therefore sought.

Mere mathematical notation doesn't bring clarity. Without clarity it's all formal manipulation of symbols that should be empty.

 

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Fryar uses "acting white"
Submitted by ptcruiser on June 9, 2005 - 4:26pm.

Fryar uses "acting white" because it is catchy and grabs attention. It is an attractive sound bite to use the current vernacular. It also reinforces the notion that whites are naturally endowed with certain intellectual talents and inclinations and that blacks as a group are so significantly less endowed that we actually exclude from the group blacks who study and read books.

A "stylized fact" is a
Submitted by James R MacLean on June 9, 2005 - 10:38pm.

A "stylized fact" is a simplified expression of a statistical observation. For example, if you run a regression analysis of economic data for OECD countries, you will notice a strong correlation between taxes (as a share of GDP) and trade balance. You could say "if taxes are increased by 1% of GDP, then the trade balance increases (becomes less negative) by 0.25% of GDP."

This is not actually true, although it is a reasonable and inuitive explanation of the 0.25 coefficient on T (where T is taxes/GDP). It is not true because there are far too many other factors that determine levels of income, taxes, exports, and imports, to warrant suh a reductionist causal correlation.

The use of stylized facts to draw conclusions is often grounds for dismissing research out of hand; however, a good theory is going to explain stylized facts.

James R. MacLean - good to
Submitted by ptcruiser on June 9, 2005 - 10:54pm.

James R. MacLean - good to see you posting again! I missed your comments and observations.

 A "stylized fact" is a
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on June 10, 2005 - 7:06am.

 A "stylized fact" is a simplified expression of a statistical observation.

So we're not talking about facts. 

The use of stylized facts to draw conclusions is often grounds for dismissing research out of hand;

It should be grounds for dismissing government policy out of hand as well. 

 

James R. MacLean - good to
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on June 10, 2005 - 7:12am.

James R. MacLean - good to see you posting again! I missed your comments and observations.

Yeah.  James has clarified a lot for me when I started looking into economics as our cultural dogma. He has yet to explain something badly or in a way that wasn't useful.

 

Thanks. Although it's not
Submitted by James R MacLean on June 13, 2005 - 3:48am.

Thanks. Although it's not obvious, I've been frantically trying to rebuild Hobson's Choice.

It should be grounds for
Submitted by James R MacLean on June 13, 2005 - 4:00am.

It should be grounds for dismissing government policy out of hand as well

Usually a stylized fact is used as a lobbying tool. Example: "Studies show..." is nearly always followed by a stylized fact. Averages are a stylized fact, especially when the thing being averaged is (a) very unevenly distributed, and (b) the average is used to make inferences about a "typical" average thing.

Economics is all about stylized fact. Unfortunately, it's overlooked much of the time how 'unreal' those facts really are.

Unfortunately, it's
Submitted by Prometheus 6 on June 13, 2005 - 7:20am.

Unfortunately, it's overlooked much of the time how 'unreal' those facts really are.

 

Yup. It's my whole "statistics vs. quality of life" thing.

"Fact" has lost its meaning. When someone can say "his facts aren't true" we know the language has shifted beneath our feet. I think I should use data where the original meaning of "fact" is intended.

Of course,I'll never remember to do that... 

I'd like to add myself to
Submitted by dwshelf on June 13, 2005 - 12:49pm.

I'd like to add myself to the list of readers who admire James' explanations, because I hope to read more of them.