Name: Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
ISBN: 9780465083619

Beverly Tatum

The classic, bestselling book on the psychology of racism-now fully revised and updated Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America. "An unusually sensitive work about the racial barriers that still divide us in so many areas of life."-Jonathan Kozol

Revised Edition

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Molly M

it tends to be a bigger punch to the gut when books whose overall messages align with my values, rather than ones that don’t, say something transphobic, ableist, pro capitalist, etc.

still worth reading, but i really look forward to improvements.

grayson wroe

loved dr. tatum’s narrative style and honesty!! really recommend this to increase critical consciousness of race

Brian Walborn

A wake-up call for everyone, particularly for white men and women of a privileged upbringing. Tatum calls us to question our belief systems while deftly weaving history with current events. This was one of the first books I actively chose to read to better understand contemporary society in regards to Black identity. If you like How to be An Anti-Racist and White Fragility, this is a nice companion piece. My recommendation is to read the updated edition with a new introduction by the author. So many lessons here we should all share with our own children.

Margaret Sh.

A lot of opinions covered in the book was exposed to me during civil rights movements throughout the 2010s, and of course they were eye-opening to me back then. Imagine reading this book for the first time in 90s and being exposed to these ideas when I first set foot here in the US.

Jeni Enjaian

I read this book as part of a community discussion group held by the Public Education Partners in my local area. What an incredible opportunity. I found quite a difference with the readability of this book in contrast to the book I finished recently by Howard Stevenson. Both authors are psychology professors (or former university presidents in the case of Tatum) but Tatum crafts a non-fiction narrative that investigates the same things that Stevenson does but in a way that does not make the reader have to study the same sentences multiple times. 
Every single educator must read this and not only read it but must engage in crucial self-reflection and change based on the presented information.

Bryan Alexander

A very interesting and useful book to read in 2019.

"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" is primarily a psychologist's call to white Americans to have more respect and understanding for, and better conversations with, black Americans. To this end Tatum outlines a model of black racial identity, developed from childhood through adulthood, showing how important black, and being subjected to multi-leveled racism is to black people. She then advises white readers on how to think about their anti-black racism, and how to progress past it, concluding with a call for more interracial conversation about race and racism.

The answer to the titular question is that black students draw together for protection and community against white racism.

Reading this 1997 book in 2019, I was struck by how much it echoes that period. Tatum's call for interracial dialog recalls the Clinton administration's "national dialogue about race" - which occurred while said Clinton administration drastically increased the surveillance and imprisonment of blacks and Hispanics. The centrality of race to personal identity... I'm not sure how contemporary readers received that; was it challenging at the time, or uncontroversial? 

It fits right into 2019, at least in blue state/Democratic America, with our strong emphasis on racial identity. In fact, Tatum's major prescription is for "ABCs of leadership -- affirm identity, build community and cultivate the 21st-century leadership." That is: affirm one's racial identity; build racially-based communities; develop leaders from those groups. It's a very different argument from the classic American melting pot.

It's interesting to reflect on this book in post-9-11 America. Prejudice against Muslims and Arabs - such a major issue, especially in the years right after the attack - doesn't appear in this book, not are they referenced in the later edition materials. 

I think that's because of a struggle in the text. It's really about black-white relations, but does take care to mention several other nonwhite races; that balance isn't struck. The sections on Hispanic and especially Asian population don't really fit into the rest of the work. Even more awkwardly positioned are brief mentions of Jews and antisemitism. It's not clear if the book folds Jews into white identity.

I don't know how to assess "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" as a work of psychology. I read it when psychology as a field is wracked by its reproducibility crisis (a rising amount of psych research is being challenged), which increases my skepticism of the literature. Yet the findings make sense to me, based on my experience and reading.

Brittany

Jennifer

Martha F.

Laura T

Beverly Daniel Tatum

Walk into any racially mixed secondary school and you will see young people clustered in their own groups according to race. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned psychology Professor, guides us through how racial identity develops, from very young children all the way to adulthood, in black families, white families, and mixed race families, and helps us understand what we can do to break the silence, have better conversations with our children and with each other about race, and build a better world. A mainstay on the bookshelves of American readers since 1998, and substantially revised and updated in 2017, this evergreen bestseller is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of race

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Revised Edition

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