It might be significant in this context to consider the diametrically opposed ways the DC police prepared for and responded to the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer vs the largely White armed attack on the Capitol building last week. as these photos show.
Reading and Discussion: "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" Part II1/11/2021 In this second part of her groundbreaking study of Black youth growing up in a White world, Dr. Tatum turns the table on the question that forms the title of the book and examines it from the perspective of of Black identity development with respect to Black culture. It might be significant in this context to consider the diametrically opposed ways the DC police prepared for and responded to the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer vs the largely White armed attack on the Capitol building last week. as these photos show. National Guard Defending the Lincoln Memorial During BLM Protest 2020 . Source: frontpagelive.com
3 Comments
irene
1/11/2021 08:09:59 pm
The juxtaposed pictures are a powerful reinforcement of Sam Sanders point in his NPR opinion piece on last week's violent insurrection.. Dr. Tatum's book with its illumination of identity development in Black children, adolescents, and adults repeatedly notes that one, Black children are often more conscious of race, and interested in their REC identity because they learn early that Whites find their race so significant. And yet Whites just don't talk about race in a normal way. In "polite" contexts they don't mention it at all. She emphasizes the crucial importance of talking candidly and clearly about race in factual, positive, authentic ways..Silence is an implied negative. If parents and teachers of all races do not answer children's questions about race, children absorb the implied negative:.Sanders is doing important work when he highlights the obvious; compare law enforcement response to BLM protests and to the Capitol insurrection. Yet day after day we hear our politicians, our media, our leaders go on and on about "this is not America" impeach, he should resign etc. The obvious fact that racism and its attendant terror at the loss of White dominance lies at the core of the Capitol attack garners virtually no attention. Silence.
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Stephanie Schlanger
1/12/2021 12:20:18 pm
Still learning. I have two experiences I want to share after reading Part II about becoming "race aware."
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Virginia McCallum
2/16/2021 09:00:26 am
As I grew up in a military family frequently living in Europe and always in U.S. military housing for dependents, I often lived across the hall, on the same stair well, etc with people of color Hispanic, Asian, African-American. We rode the same buses to school and the issue was to get a window seat not the race of the person who might share the seat. We attended classes together, ate lunch in the same cafeteria. I don’t recall any tables being exclusive to one race. At high school reunions (40 years after graduation) I’ve tested these memories with African Americans there and they have agreed their experiences were the same. We grew in, while not completely non-racist, no obvious discrimination. Only when my family lived in Texas and not on a military base, was I in all white schools and in neighborhoods with out any people of color. I was in college in the Bay Area of California when I first encountered the table reserved for African American students- even when all other seats were taken no white students sat at that particular table. Given my life experience before college and sadly lacking in perception, I once sat at the table- alone. The first African Americans who arrived treated me to a lot of hostility and I quickly shuffled my books and lunch together and moved. White students also were hostile as I moved. For years I’ve been baffled by the reactions of both groups and regret I didn’t attempt to ask people at the time to explain my transgression.
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Banner Photo Credit: Matt Styles.
Source: MAKERSWomen 8/26/20. AuthorCategoriesArchives
July 2021
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