How do we talk about race?

Hello everyone, and welcome to my second blog post!

    This week I read to page 151 of my book "Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria" by Beverly Daniel Tatum. I found the reading to be very educational and I felt like I learned a lot from it. 

    One thing that author Tatum focuses on throughout the book is personal experiences she has gone through, and how she has handled them. I believe that sharing the challenges you have faced in your life with others is one of the best ways to effectively portray an idea to someone. Hearing about real-life encounters can really cause people to think deeper about a situation and make things more realistic to them. 

    Towards the beginning of the reading, Tatum goes on to explain the different definitions of racism and some specifics concepts of racism. One that stood out to me was the idea that (as a white person) even if you don't contribute to racism, you still receive the benefits that go along with it. "It's one thing to have enough awareness of racism to describe the ways that people of color are disadvantaged by it... It means that if a person of color is the victim of housing discrimination, the apartment that would otherwise have been rented to that person of color is still available for a White person." (Tatum, 88) This is explaining that while the white tenant is not to blame for the prior discrimination, they still are benefiting from it anyways. This is why it is important to be educated on this topic and do your best to prevent these circumstances. 

    A personal experience Tatum had shared during the reading was about a time when someone in her son Johnathan's daycare had asked if his skin was brown because he drank too much chocolate milk. Kids at this age try to make sense of anything and everything, so when they start to notice differences about each other they become curious about the reasoning behind it. People always would like an explanation of why things are the way they are, so while I'm sure the kids' intentions were harmless, it made Johnathan question himself. Tatum didn't respond by hushing him when he asked, or by dismissing the question, but instead explained the science behind why his skin is darker and why it is beautiful! She stated how he was the one with the most melanin in his class and that's why he was different, and he liked the idea of having the most of something. I think that this is the best approach to explaining difficult topics to kids. If they are not properly informed that is when misconceptions can happen, and prejudices can be put into place. If you explain something in a positively directed way towards a kid with a lighthearted undertone, they will then have the proper knowledge about the topic, and not an explanation that hides the truth. 

    Tatum provides another great example about a situation where something was off, so she shared that feeling with Johnathan and explained what the correct approach is. It was while she and Johnathon were reading a chapter book called "Boxcar Children" which was a book that she had known and loved during her childhood. Over the course of the book reading, she had realized that there is a major case of sexism, which she had failed to realize while reading as a kid. Another idea to note is that there is a lot of underlying lessons in kid's shows or books, and some are not very suitable for the correct knowledge. Alas, the female characters were only perceived to be women of cooking and cleaning, while the male characters got to fish and make all of the important discoveries. Johnathon said he didn't know what sexism was when his mother asked him, so she explained to him why it is bad. This prevented him from learning about it the wrong way, as I think it may be best to introduce these topics to kids yourself as they come up rather than someone else. 

    The reason I wanted to focus on the proper education of children during this blog post, is because while reading it really made me think about how your childhood heavily, heavily influences who you turn out to become as a person. If you are taught good manners and respect as a kid, you will most likely take those skills with you as an adult. It is the same with lessons on racism, sexism, or whatever the occurrence may be. If you are taught the skill to identify when something of that nature is taking place, you are much more likely to point it out and do something to stop it from happening. "Sometimes the assumptions we make about others come not from what we have been told or what we have seen on television or in books but rather from what we have not been told" (Tatum, 84) This quote perfectly explains why I think education about sensitive topics is such an important concept. 

    I hoped you enjoyed this week's analysis of my book, and hope you join me for the next one! Goodbye readers <3

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the
     Cafeteria?" : and Other Conversations about Race. New York :Basic Books,
     2003.