Tatum - Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?: and other conversations about race

When I began my own journey of anti-racism, Beverly Daniel Tatums Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria was the first and most instructive work I discovered. Its anniversary editionwith timely new research, revisited institutional issues, and personal examples so fresh they seem to have come from the headlinesis the book that everyone in America needs to read right now. With clarity and grace, Tatum chronicles how our country has become so racially polarizedhow the methods and signifiers may have changed, but the world has not, sustaining inequities for people of color in terms of school segregation, law enforcement, economic obstacles, and voting rights. From the spate of police shootings to the challenge to Affirmative Action, from the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the parallel swell of hate crimes based on race, this updated version of a classic is the clearest illustration Ive found of how fear and anxiety in the declining White population of the United States has created a living environment of fear and anxiety for people of color. We dont talk about race in America, but we must start if we are going to heal this broken countryand Tatums book is exactly the conversation opener we should be using.

Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria was a landmark publication when it appeared in 1997. Twenty years later this updated edition is as fresh, poignant, and timely as ever. Bias, explicit and implicit, limit options, produce deadly encounters, and gnaw away at the fabric of our social contract. Racism, prejudice, and discrimination remain active characteristics of life in our society, notwithstanding the prominence of African Americans, Latinos/as, Asian Americans, and Native peoples in the media, entertainment, sports, politics, and many domains of business. Beverly Daniel Tatum reminds us that against this backdrop individuals sometimes seek out others like themselves because it secures their sense of self in a world that often makes them feel insecure. As a result, group congregation becomes a means of flipping the power dynamics and affirming oneself in a social context. If you somehow missed this book in its original form, I recommend this revised edition to you. It remains a must-read.

Earl Lewis, president, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Beverly Daniel Tatum answers the question posed in the title of her book in a brilliant synthesis informed by history, developmental psychology, and great wisdom. Stereotypes, omissions, and distortionseach rooted in our nations history of slaverycause each of us to breathe the smog of racism. It is little wonder that Black adolescents rely on one another for social support as they navigate identity development. In the twenty years since Tatum first published her classic book, Black people have been disproportionately affected by the economic crisis of 2008, mass incarceration, and a backlash against affirmative action. In this revision, Tatum finds a way to remain hopeful as todays youth lead movements exposing racial hierarchies, race and class privilege, and seemingly invisible systems of oppression. This book should be required reading for every American.

Kathleen McCartney, president, Smith College

We read the original version of this book twenty years ago and learned a great deal about race, racism, and human behavior. This updated version provides even more insights about the racial, ethnic, and cultural challenges we face in American society, and particularly in higher education. What makes these insights so valuable is the authors ability to look at our problems from different perspectives and to challenge us to look in the mirror as we think about who we are and whom we serve. She gives excellent examples of leaders who succeeded during times of crisis, and of others who struggled. Any American leader wanting a deeper understanding of these issues should read this book.

Freeman A. Hrabowski III, president, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Set today against the backdrop of a highly divisive and still persistently racialized societal landscape, this newly revised and updated publication is still a must-read classic. Tatum unpacks with moving narratives, the psychology that drives us all, as we grow up in largely homogenous communities, schooled in the nuances of difference that define too starkly our racial identities, even as we strive to learn how to embrace rather than distance [ourselves] from the many others that define our world. Just as this experienced psychologist and wise educational leader reminds us here that we cannot talk meaningfully about racial identity without talking about racism, so too must we learn from her words about how to talk and teach and dialogue across those boundaries, in the hopes of better realizing the potential of our diverse democracy.

Nancy Cantor, chancellor, Rutgers University-Newark

In 1997, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? changed the conversation about race and racism in our nation. Twenty years later, this new edition is sure to do the same, this time with thoroughly updated information about the growing ethnic, racial, cultural, and religious diversity that now characterizes the United States, as well as important insights about persistent barriers to authentic integration and shrinking opportunities for many segments of the population. Given the current sociopolitical context in which we find ourselves, a context too often defined by exclusion and the stubborn persistence of bigotry and racism, this new edition couldnt have come soon enough!