Beverly Daniel Tatum Ph.D. Is An Expert On Race Relations

Author, Dr. Beverly Tatum a clinical psychologist whose main study of interest is Black children’s racial identity development wrote the text Why Are All the Black Kids sitting Together in the Cafeteria? After receiving a letter from a school principal in New Jersey applauding her on her reason of why, in racially mixed schools all over the country, Black kids were still sitting together in school cafeterias. In the text Tatum shares her thoughts about the development of racial identity faced by the African American population and how it is interrelated to racism at the turn of the twentieth century while highlighting the Black-White relation in childhood and adolescence age group. The book entails controversy in that, Dr. Tatum understanding of racism is centered heavily on race. Tatum’s explanation of racism suggest that Blacks cannot be racist based on the fact their racial bigotry do not stand or rest on a structure of advantage.

The memoir “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston, was first published in 1928, and recounts the situation of racial discrimination and prejudice at the time in the United States. The author was born into an all-black community, but was later sent to a boarding school in Jacksonville, where she experienced “race” for the first time. Hurston not only informs the reader how she managed to stay true to herself and her race, but also inspires the reader to abandon any form of racism in their life. Especially by including Humor, Imagery, and Metaphors, the author makes her message very clear: Everyone is equal.

Beverly Daniel Tatums, is an African-American woman. She talks about self-identity and dominant and subordinate people and the groups in society. She goes in to depth about how people identify themselves. She asked for her students to complete the sentence "I am ____" many responses had to do with race and ethnic group. She supports this by connecting it to how it’s related to the dominate and subordinate people/groups of society. She says "That element of the identity is still taking for granted by them that it goes without comment. It is taken for granted buy them because it's taking for granted by the dominant culture."

“Who are ‘you’? How does your sociology vita – race or ethnicity, class, gender, family history – affect your answer?” (Jefferson). In our society, we tend to define ourselves of who we are, but we often do not realize that our race and social status plays a role in how others view us and vice versa. Margo Jefferson’s “Scenes from a Life in Negroland” gives an insight on this concept. We define race and ethnicity as a certain group of people that share common backgrounds, such as Caucasian, African American, Native American, etc., and status as where someone ranks in society, whether it is the upper, middle, or lower class. Jefferson gives numerous incidents from her childhood that deals with how people perceive them based on that they were African Americans thriving in life, especially during a time of racial tensions in the 1950’s. The essay also provides examples when they, in turn, looks at others in her life based on their social status and race. Based on her experiences, the way people see and define who someone is in society is affected by that particular person’s race and status.

Every individual has a particular definition of race and a distinct view of race relations in America today, because every individual’s reality is different and therefore their perception is different as well. With that in mind, it becomes clear that the best way to understand race relations better is to understand what another person’s thoughts are on the matter. This interview paper sheds light onto another’s understanding and thoughts regarding race relations in America. I can not sate the true identity of the interviewee in this paper, so for all intents and purposes his name will be George. My interview with George was centered on how race has played a part in his life as a black man and where he thought race relations are in our

"Why I'm Black, Not African American." The Blair Reader, edited by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, 9th ed., Boston, Pearson, 2017, pp. 305-07.

1) Define racism from your text. (Chapter 11) according to the book, racism is the belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another pg (309)

Five years and three days ago, in a little town call Tollasend were the sky is painted all color and never rest, Jazmine, Nathan, Grace, and myself were bowling on 13th Street. We only had a month left of summer before we had to go back to school. As Jazmine throw her last gutter of the game she came and sat with the rest of us to join the rest of the conversation. After a long egotistic talk about who is the best and smartest we get on the topic of what it means to be African-American. This was a very confusing topic for us because we were surround by white people and we have adopted their culture. An odd silent fell among us for a minute. Then, Grace spoke hoping that the odd silent well end. “Well, being black is like living in a cardboard box,” Grace explained. To this day I don’t know what she meant but, being black to me… well I really don’t know what it means to be black. After the we finished our conversation we walked how our speared ways:

Beverly Daniel Tatum explores the multiple identities taken on by a variety of different people and their impact on society. Tatum argues how not only does one defines his/her identities for him/herself but also others around the person may also define his/her identities. She also argues how parts of one’s identities also sets that person apart from the whole, whether the whole be the community or a classroom. By embracing different identities for oneself, Tatum then argues how some identities are more dominant than others, thus different groups have different variability in their influence on society as a whole but also on that person’s own self-identity. Tatum concludes her essay arguing her point that people are oppressed by their own identities

The point of the story is to inform children to keep on stepping even though others will continually put you down and expect the worst from you. This study relates to what we know about the development of African American identity in children as a result of Drs. Mamie and Kenneth Clark’s doll studies (1939) used as critical testimony in Brown vs. Topeka, Board of Education in 1954. Many studies and theories have followed, including, Drs. Parham, Cross, and Tatum. All of these studies addressed racial identity development in their respective research. Racial identity development is a concept referred to as, “the process of defining for oneself the personal significance and social meaning of belonging to a particular racial group" (Tatum, 1997, p. 16). In addition, Cross' Nigrescence framework (Cross, 1971; Cross, Parham, & Helms, 1991), proves to be particularly useful and significantly relevant to the information presented in this article. The Nigrescence model provides a five stage progression of Black American racial identity formation. The fourth and fifth stages of the Nigrescence model are both Internalization stages and foster healing and positive racial identity. The process in stages four and five allow African Americans to become “anchored in a positive sense of racial identity and to perceive and transcend race proactively.” Ultimately, reaching one of these two stages can lead to the first step in the healing process, and the elimination of the transferring of cultural trauma through the folklore of African American tradition and

Janet E. Helms introduced her White Racial Identity Theory in 1990 to “raise the awareness of white people about their role in creating and maintaining a racist society and the need for them to act responsibly by dismantling it” (Helms, 1992, p. 61). She developed the White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (WRIAS) inventory to measure identity development and determined that the “evolution of a positive White racial identity consists of two processes, the abandonment of racism and the development of a non-racist White identity” (Helms, 1990, p. 50) The WRIAS consists of six stages: 1) Contact – people in this stage are oblivious to and unaware of racism. They believe that everyone has an equal chance for success, lack an understanding of prejudice and discrimination, have minimal experience with

Introduction and definition of key terms What is racism? We know it is wicked, has the power to hurt feelings, and should not be practiced, but, do we really know what racism is? Jon Steward once said “We have made enormous progress in teaching everyone that racism is bad. Where we seem to have dropped the ball… is in teaching people what racism actually IS”.

Racism is defined as views, practices, and actions reflecting the belief that human beings are divided into certain categories known as races and that these members share common attributes amongst one another. This definition causes a specific group or race to be less desirable, more desirable, inferior, or superior. The segregation between ethnicities have stirred many debates, battles, and controversy. Another issue that is related to racism would have to be the stereotypes involved in the racial slurs. Stereotypes are commonly known as a widely held, yet fixed image or idea over a certain person, group, or thing. These stereotypes place the affected

Tatum explains how white individuals, at a young age are taught by the American culture that they have superiority over people of color. These assumptions can be made based on social media and institutions such as school. Parents also plays a huge role on influencing their children on what to think about on certain groups. For examples, children at a young age watches cartoons and based off of those images, they grow up thinking that those assumptions are accurate. Due to this, they make assumptions on others’ race based on what they learned from the media, school, and also from parents. As a result of this, their mentality has set to only one specific path without challenging it. Omission also plays an important role on how each

In the previous class session, race and racism were covered and we discussed the problems that different races experience along with the model demonstrating the stages of racial identity. The Racial Identity Development Theory explains the stages of someone identifying with one's own race. Additionally, each race experiences differences in the availability of resources such as wealth, housing, and jobs. Each race has various amounts of access to each of those resources, which can affect self perception among races. Feelings of vulnerability and problems with self esteem can also create self limiting beliefs about opportunities and lead to stress.