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Oct. 21st, 2008 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI probably should have read Beverly Daniel Tatum's "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity a while ago. On the other hand, I'm kind of glad that I've read it at this stage in my thought processes, when I have become aware of most of the basic Antiracism 101 concepts set forth in the book through discussions on LJ and other places, and started trying (with I don't know how much success so far, but) to become more actively antiracist - it's allowed me to read the book at a more thoughtful level, I think, instead of diving in, getting walloped over the head with a ton of new concepts, and floundering in Stage One White Person Guilt. Of course, as far as that stage goes, this book is probably one of the better ways to go through it. I think one of the most successful things about it is that it is not an exclusive text. In its discussions it tries to find some place for all potential readers to see themselves and further their thought process and sense of self, and points out how important this is for everyone.
You know, it's kind of ironic, actually - Not Talking About Race is so ingrained in me still that even writing up this book makes me feel nervous in case I Say Something Dumb. A booklog, for goodness' sakes. I say this because I think that really just goes to show how much this book and others like it that encourage actually talking about race are needed.
You know, it's kind of ironic, actually - Not Talking About Race is so ingrained in me still that even writing up this book makes me feel nervous in case I Say Something Dumb. A booklog, for goodness' sakes. I say this because I think that really just goes to show how much this book and others like it that encourage actually talking about race are needed.
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Date: 2008-10-21 05:07 pm (UTC)Slightly more seriously -- in my AP Psychology class my senior year of high school, we had to do book reports (swear to god) that partially involved leading a class discussion. I picked this book.
The only person besides me who participated was the teacher, who was black and from New York, and a girl from Morocco. Everybody else in my class was white and silent. It's the kind of thing that sticks with you.
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Date: 2008-10-21 05:26 pm (UTC)And . . . . yeah. I wish I could say that surprised me. (I wish I could say that I thought I would have acted differently, five years ago.) And I really wish it didn't take most of us so long to learn that silence is often a much greater problem than awkward or uncomfortable speech.
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Date: 2008-10-21 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-21 09:20 pm (UTC)