Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
A study guide of Beverly Daniel Tatum’s 2020 book ‘Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?’
Summary, part 1
Prologue and Introduction
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? is the 20th-anniversary edition of a book that was originally published in 1997. Tatum uses the prologue and introduction of this book to look at what, if anything, has changed since the book was originally published.
Tatum finds that despite growing diversity across America, old patterns of segregation still exist. Students are still assigned to schools based on where they live, and while neighborhoods have still remained segregated, so have schools. Although there has been some meaningful change, there have also been giant setbacks in progress. The three main setbacks she identifies are anti-affirmative action backlash, the Great Recession, and mass incarceration. In the 1990s many states approved Proposition 209, which prohibited “preferential treatment” in employment, education, and contracting programs. The economic collapse of The Great Recession impacted Black and Latinx families the most, and these economic disparities led to educational disparities. Finally, mass incarceration had a huge impact on educational disparity, again particularly impacting Black and Latinx families.
Tatum shows the contradiction between these setbacks with the “progress” of the last 20 years, namely the election of Barack Obama. Despite students voting two for one for Barack Obama, racist incidents across school campuses continued to grow and the common belief among millennials that selecting a Black president meant race was no longer a barrier, people of color still felt excluded and treated differently. Tatum explains that this showcases how we are living in a color silent society, where we are afraid to talk about racial differences rather than in a post-racial, color-blind society. Additionally, Barack Obama’s comments to the nation after the murder of Trayvon Martin only rubbed salt into the wound of many young Black people around America.
Tatum also highlights how Trayvon Martin’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement were in many ways spearheaded on college campuses across America. Mizzou, located only two hours away from Ferguson, became a symbol of student-based activism in 2015 when a student went on a hunger strike in protest against senior campus leaders who were unable to prevent consistent bias incidents on campus.
It is not only Black communities that are plagued with police and racialized violence. Tatum highlights Native American communities, highlighting that “... compared to their percentage of the US population, Natives are more likely to be killed by police than any other group, including African Americans.” (p. 47) The disparity in the media that focuses on Black-White relations means that often, other experiences of people of color can be overlooked. One community that has suffered greatly since the election of Donald Trump is the Mexican community in America. Anti-Mexican sentiments drew the interests of nationalists and for the first time overt White nationalism re-entered American politics. Post-election voting analysis revealed the nation was divided by racial lines: majority White voters (particularly White women voters) chose Trump while the majority voters of color did not. Tatum also asks the reader to be cognizant of who voted for Trump, versus who was kept from voting, as the 2016 election was the first election without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act. 14 states had new voting restrictions, including essential swing states like Ohio, and although voter suppression may not have changed the outcome of the election, it definitely had an impact.
Living in the age of Trump also came with unique difficulties and setbacks, especially in school communities. There was a dramatic rise in bias-based attacks after the election and the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) reported that schools were the most common venues for hate incidents. Tatum highlights that expectations and values of leaders can change the tone of the community and the nature of our conversation and “how the leadership describes who is in and who is out matters on a college campus, and it matters in our nation” (p. 70).