Reading and Discussion: "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" Introduction and Part I

1/3/2021

Dr. Beverly Tatum kick -started the public conversation about race and racism in America with her groundbreaking 1996 study of racial identity development in "Why Are All l the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" Now reissued, with Dr. Tatum's concise yet comprehensive summary of "the race issue" as it stands 20 years later, couldn't be more timely. Bottom line: Now more than ever we need to have this conversation. What are your take-aways from your reading (or re-reading) of the Introduction and Part I of this book?

Below are a couple of videos of Dr. Tatum talking about the critical need for conversations about race in America, no matter how difficult , painful and uncomfortable.

Next week we welcome comments about Part II.

2 Comments

Irene

1/4/2021 08:07:14 pm

Before Part 1, I was completely blown away by Dr. Tatum's dispassionate,powerful Prologue on how the US has regressed in the years since 1997. Racism is more firmly entrenched in 2017 than in 1997 when she first wrote the book. And 3 years later, the searing events of 2020, the litany of murders of Black people by US law enforcement, only underscore her insight.
Part 1,t alking about identity and the pervasive US "smog" of racism and White dominance have been echoed since 1997 by White writers like Robin DeAngelo and many others, though none of it seems to have made much significant impact.
I admire Tatum's counsel to make a difference by breaking our "colorsilence".
I read the first version of the book shortly after it came out. Second read is disturbing 20 years later.

kristina flanagan

1/9/2021 03:57:38 pm

well what a thing to listen to this wonderful interview on January 8,2021. In focusing on LWVSFC I am so proud of the work which we do in the schools and with Jedi to get young folks registered to vote, especially young people of color. The statistics on % of white voters in the 50s vs majority voters who are people of color (eligible voters) now gives texture to what happened in our capitol on January 6. I truly feel, whatever your political orientation (ie policy considerations) the election of Rev. Warnock and Kamala Harris signals a crack in the wall of American apartheid which has to have deep and lasting repercussions, as it did when Mandala and his followers freed South Africa. Patience, humility, perseverance, community organizing, and honest accounting of falsehoods driving our narratives are all values and actions suited to this time. I look forward to watching the second interview and am so grateful to have listened to the first. BTW the atlanafriendship initiative looks like something which we could look into once it's safe for folks to gather again

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Reading and Discussion: "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" Introduction and Part I

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