23. Beverly Daniel Tatum - "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?"
This book has been reviewed here several times, and I don't disagree with what others have said. Much of it is a beginner-level discussion of racism and privilege, though a notably clear and compassionate one with many striking analogies. (I particularly liked the image of racism as an airport moving sidewalk -- if you "do nothing", it carries you along. You have to actively walk the other way just to stay in one place, let alone get anywhere else.)
It seems aimed at people who may still be unsure about whether white privilege is real, and if it is, whether it's really that big of a deal. I think it could be a good way to ease in to the topic for someone who doesn't know where to start, especially because of the large amount of further reading Tatum suggests. It led me to add many titles to my list of books to look for.
There is fairly extensive discussion of how black and white American racial identities form in childhood and moving into adulthood. There is also a chapter divided into sections on other races in America, which is not nearly as detailed, and (at least I felt) had an unfortunate tinge of "oh yeah, here's all those other races", even though I think Tatum was trying to avoid that. She admits that she doesn't have the breadth of knowledge necessary for a more thorough treatment, and says this is just a start. It certainly made me want to fill in these gaps with other works. Countries other than the U.S. are also considered outside the scope of the book, and omitted.
I read the title section with great interest, because I've often been in situations where I couldn't explain why it is sometimes necessary for people to hang out with others of their own disprivileged group, even though I know instinctively and from personal experience (in the context of being queer) that it is necessary. Yet it sometimes causes people of the privileged group to freak out, who often can't reconcile what they're seeing with what they've been taught about segregation being a bad thing, and feel an unfamiliar and scary sense of being excluded.
Tatum explains that this is a normal part of identity development and not to be feared. But I didn't think she went in-depth enough in saying that it isn't just a temporary "stage" of development and why it is different from imposed segregation. (I understand why it's different, but considering this is a 101-level book and I've heard a lot of people go from their observations of "self-segregation" to asking whether we shouldn't all just stay separate all the time... I think some more explanation of this could have been useful.)
I appreciated the discussion of the mental blocks white Americans experience, not just in acknowledging racism, but in feeling like we are helpless to do anything about it, feeling paralyzed by the fear of saying the "wrong thing" if we do speak up, and backsliding into blaming people of color when the frustration gets too great. As a white American I could relate to this, and I also saw the wisdom in her comment that people of color do not necessarily or automatically want to hear about it, and that our primary role is to talk to other white people within our sphere of influence about our words, practices, and beliefs.
a: Tatum Beverly Daniel, African-American, non-fiction, race
It seems aimed at people who may still be unsure about whether white privilege is real, and if it is, whether it's really that big of a deal. I think it could be a good way to ease in to the topic for someone who doesn't know where to start, especially because of the large amount of further reading Tatum suggests. It led me to add many titles to my list of books to look for.
There is fairly extensive discussion of how black and white American racial identities form in childhood and moving into adulthood. There is also a chapter divided into sections on other races in America, which is not nearly as detailed, and (at least I felt) had an unfortunate tinge of "oh yeah, here's all those other races", even though I think Tatum was trying to avoid that. She admits that she doesn't have the breadth of knowledge necessary for a more thorough treatment, and says this is just a start. It certainly made me want to fill in these gaps with other works. Countries other than the U.S. are also considered outside the scope of the book, and omitted.
I read the title section with great interest, because I've often been in situations where I couldn't explain why it is sometimes necessary for people to hang out with others of their own disprivileged group, even though I know instinctively and from personal experience (in the context of being queer) that it is necessary. Yet it sometimes causes people of the privileged group to freak out, who often can't reconcile what they're seeing with what they've been taught about segregation being a bad thing, and feel an unfamiliar and scary sense of being excluded.
Tatum explains that this is a normal part of identity development and not to be feared. But I didn't think she went in-depth enough in saying that it isn't just a temporary "stage" of development and why it is different from imposed segregation. (I understand why it's different, but considering this is a 101-level book and I've heard a lot of people go from their observations of "self-segregation" to asking whether we shouldn't all just stay separate all the time... I think some more explanation of this could have been useful.)
I appreciated the discussion of the mental blocks white Americans experience, not just in acknowledging racism, but in feeling like we are helpless to do anything about it, feeling paralyzed by the fear of saying the "wrong thing" if we do speak up, and backsliding into blaming people of color when the frustration gets too great. As a white American I could relate to this, and I also saw the wisdom in her comment that people of color do not necessarily or automatically want to hear about it, and that our primary role is to talk to other white people within our sphere of influence about our words, practices, and beliefs.
a: Tatum Beverly Daniel, African-American, non-fiction, race