Racism
Racism in America: Past, Present and Future
Google Racism. Immediately, thousands of images will pop up. As you scroll through, you can’t help but to notice a majority of the images displayed are old, almost 60 years old to be exact. Anyone would infer from the outdated images of African Americans being beaten, the 60’s era signs saying “Whites Only”, and the grainy black and white images of Dr. Martin Luther King speaking publicly, that racism is a thing of the past. For how could it not be? Even Google, the largest search engine in the world, cannot find a recent picture of “racism”. This question of the existence of racism in our country today was the entire premise behind the book I analyzed called Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria. This book was authored by Beverly Tatum, current president of Spelman College, and considered to be extremely well educated on the psychology of racism. In her book, she challenges the common belief that racism was widely eradicated after the Civil Rights Movement, and she goes on to point out how despite countless studies, many people refuse to believe our country still holds prejudices against minorities. Racism has been deeply ceded in the fabric of this country since the beginning of time. While our country has made tremendous progress in reducing racial inequities and discriminatory practices, we still have a long way to go.
Beverly Tatum introduces her book by describing a typical high school cafeteria at lunch time. She highlights the obvious fact that all of the black teenagers are sitting together, and sectioned off from the white population that dominates the middle area of the cafeteria. It is as if an invisible line has been drawn between the white students and the black students, and for now, no one has the courage to try and cross it. Tatum points out that it didn’t used to be that way, if you were to observe an elementary school cafeteria, you would see that racial grouping is
Google Racism. Immediately, thousands of images will pop up. As you scroll through, you can’t help but to notice a majority of the images displayed are old, almost 60 years old to be exact. Anyone would infer from the outdated images of African Americans being beaten, the 60’s era signs saying “Whites Only”, and the grainy black and white images of Dr. Martin Luther King speaking publicly, that racism is a thing of the past. For how could it not be? Even Google, the largest search engine in the world, cannot find a recent picture of “racism”. This question of the existence of racism in our country today was the entire premise behind the book I analyzed called Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria. This book was authored by Beverly Tatum, current president of Spelman College, and considered to be extremely well educated on the psychology of racism. In her book, she challenges the common belief that racism was widely eradicated after the Civil Rights Movement, and she goes on to point out how despite countless studies, many people refuse to believe our country still holds prejudices against minorities. Racism has been deeply ceded in the fabric of this country since the beginning of time. While our country has made tremendous progress in reducing racial inequities and discriminatory practices, we still have a long way to go.
Beverly Tatum introduces her book by describing a typical high school cafeteria at lunch time. She highlights the obvious fact that all of the black teenagers are sitting together, and sectioned off from the white population that dominates the middle area of the cafeteria. It is as if an invisible line has been drawn between the white students and the black students, and for now, no one has the courage to try and cross it. Tatum points out that it didn’t used to be that way, if you were to observe an elementary school cafeteria, you would see that racial grouping is