>The most damaging reframe in American history is that using the universal tools for success is “acting white.”
If you are not American it may not be clear. One specific example of a "universal tool for success" being marred in this way is that black kids who are successful academically are sometimes bullied for "acting white." I've intentionally found a left leaning source discussing this phenomenon. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/acting-whi...
My darker friends often caught hell from associating with a 'white boy' like me. The racism problem is bad on the other side too and many people discount this, but it may be a bigger problem than the obverse for culture and progress.
The implied theory in the paraphrased quotes is that Black people are not successful in part because they have learned a framing where success requires acting like a slave owner, or acting white. That is, behaviors that correlate with success are tainted with being the way (oppressive) white people act.
I'm sure I'm missing the meaning here somehow but to me it's quite obvious we may imitate something successful and not imitate something unsuccessful.