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

1/11/2021

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.

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."
I am White. I grew up in the 60s in southern California, where I attended public schools that had roughly equal numbers of White, Black and Hispanic students. These groups did not mix except on the athletic fields. Just as Dr. Tatum stated, because the school tracked students, there were very few students of color in my classes. While I didn't question this anomaly at the time (I wasn't even aware of it), looking back, this seems especially wrong as I was not by any means a high performing student--I was in those classes only because I was White. One day in my senior year, a group of Chicana girls (the term used in SoCal then) surrounded me as I was getting on my bike to ride home and accused me of being a race traitor by "dating White boys." Due to my Mediterranean Jewish heritage, I have dark skin, eyes and hair, and these girls thought I was trying to pass as White. At first I didn't understand what they were saying; then I didn't know how to respond, so I just ignored them and rode home. The experience has been with me unresolved for 50 years. Since reading this book, I've been asking myself, What would I do differently now?
The second experience was when I attended a People of Color Conference as a White ally representing the private school where I was teaching. It was the first time I experienced being in the minority in terms of ethnicity. During the social hour, I sat with a small group of White teachers on the edge of the seating area, feeling for the first time like the kid in school who doesn't have a cohort to sit with in the cafeteria. We were, in Dr. Tatum's terms, completely irrelevant and invisible to the dominant group. As named, this conference belonged to people of color, and they were clearly enjoyed hanging out together, free from the constraints imposed on them by the White world they spent their professional lives in. I remember that I realized then that I had never seen my colleagues of color truly relaxed and at ease in a social setting, just being themselves--I didn't know them at all.

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.
After college I taught in a prominently African American school district in Los Angeles and was surprised to have students in middle school automatically assume I was a racist. A decade or so later, I lived and worked in Detroit, Michigan- older, somewhat more perceptive, I notice the defensiveness of people I encountered. Again there was the initial assumption of racism later abandoned as a person recognized my participation in our interactions as a racist - and also not with discomfort.
Due to growing up in a society rich in multi races, I’m not uncomfortable around people of color even when I’m the only white person around. I’ve asked directions when I’m the only white person for miles; everyone was helpful.
Reading the book confirmed what it took me decades to learn regarding tables reserved for particular groups and why different racial groups want a space in which to congregate together. For me it seems sad we cannot just be Americans rather than types of Americans. Also, I honestly think our differences are more due to social-economic levels than racial - race is just more apparent.
;

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

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