Why do so many African American and Latino students perform worse than their Asian and White peers in classes and on exams? Why might African American and Latino students be less engaged in school? Common wisdom holds that racial stratification leads African American and Latino students to rebel against "acting white," thus dooming themselves to lower levels of scholastic, economic, and social achievement. Keepin' It Real sets the record straight. Drawing on survey fieldwork and interview data from low-income Latino and African-American youth in New York, Prudence Carter here shows that African American and Latino youth are no different than other youths in valuing education as the key to economic mobility. Rather, resistance to "acting white" indicates a rejection only of the generic American, "white," middle-class styles of interaction, speech, dress, and musical tastes. Carter further demonstrates why some African American and Latino students thrive academically, and others do not. The most successful negotiators of our school systems are not necessarily those who assimilate into the dominant white mainstream, but rather those most adept at crossing the cultural divide. These students, who are potentially what she terms multicultural navigators, do not "act white" or "act black". Rather, these culturally savvy teens harvest resources from multiple traditions--whether it be knowledge of hip hop or of classical music--to strategically negotiate different expectations and achieve their high ambitions.