48 pages • 1 hour read
Beverly Daniel TatumWhy Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 5: “Breaking the Silence”
Chapter 10 Summary: “Embracing a Cross-Racial Dialogue”
Some Americans feel there is already too much talk about racial issues, but Tatum argues that we need much more. Many White people avoid talking about racism out of fear of becoming isolated from friends and family, fear of being rejected by others who don’t like what they say, or fear of exposing their own ignorance by saying the wrong thing. People of color can also be afraid to talk about racism. It can be terrifying to broach the subject without knowing how others will respond. Sometimes there is the fear that speaking up will accomplish nothing, leaving them angry and frustrated once again. Both White people and people of color need to overcome their fears and take the risk of speaking up.
For a person of color, staying silent can mean internalizing one’s own oppression. They may deny their experiences with racism and place the blame on themselves. For a White person, the pressure to not notice racism means that their own racial identity and privilege are left unexamined. Breaking the silence can be empowering, but it also takes courage to push past the fear. Tatum recommends for each person to focus on their own sphere of influence. Parents and teachers can think of the conversations they have with their children or students. Anyone can reach out to newspapers or broadcasters to contribute their opinions. Employers can think about who is underrepresented in their workforce. Athletes can think about how they talk and behave around their teammates. None of us are perfect and we will all inevitably make mistakes—Tatum herself acknowledges that she has made many mistakes throughout her life—but we all must begin to speak. Even though words are not enough, they are a necessary first step to producing change.
Epilogue Summary: “Signs of Hope, Sites of Progress”
While the Prologue discussed how little progress has been made in the past 20 years, that doesn’t mean that there is no good news at all. Some people do speak up about racism within their sphere of influence. Tatum highlights one instance in which a university class president, a White man, publicly challenged those who stayed silent following a racist incident on campus. Throughout the Epilogue, Tatum highlights a number of initiatives that have been effective at producing meaningful change. Many of them are small in scale but have shown promising results that could be applied elsewhere.
One such program is the Atlanta Friendship Initiative, which creates friendship pairs between two people of different races or ethnicities. Participants have said that the conversations they have had with their partner have taught them a great deal. Another is The Welcome Table, a program at the William Winter Institute which facilitates trust building and storytelling activities among people of different racial backgrounds. Educational institutions can also play a vital role by helping students develop the capacity to listen to one another. At the University of Michigan, students have the option of taking intergroup dialogue courses, which foster meaningful encounters between people of different backgrounds. Dialogue programs have begun to spread to other institutions as well. While things may not be better now than they were 20 years ago, Tatum is hopeful that we can make the future better.
Part 5 Analysis
In comparison to much of the rest of the book, and the Prologue in particular, Tatum ends the book on a much more hopeful note. Reading about the pervasiveness of racism in American society is likely to make many readers feel hopeless, but Tatum’s goal is to inspire them to take action and produce change, and for that it is necessary to have hope for the future. She acknowledges that many readers are likely afraid, but she encourages them to push past their fears, as many other activists have done throughout history.
Even if they find the courage to speak up, many readers may feel that they are not powerful enough to make a difference. Tatum emphasizes that small changes are significant. We each have our own sphere of influence at home, at school, at work, or elsewhere. We may not individually be able to change institutional policies and practices, but the small changes that we make within our own social circles can lead to bigger societal changes.
