Hello, and welcome back to my final blog post. I just wanted to thank everyone who read and commented on my previous blog posts, I had a lot of fun reading your comments. Today's blog post is mostly about my final thoughts, and the last section of reading that my group did. We read pages two hundred ninety-nine to page three hundred fifty-eight. In the section, Dr Tatum discussed how multiracial families develop their own identity. She also discussed adoption of children who aren’t the same race as their adoptive parents. Dr. Tatum explained how it was important for parents who are adopting a child with a different race of theirs and also for parents of a biracial child, particularly white parents with a biracial child to introduce their child to their ethnicity’s culture as soon as they could. That could mean joining support groups of families in the same biracial situation, or adopters who have different races then their adoptive children.
Courtesy of EmbraceRace
Dr. Tatum cited many students or adults who grew up with their adoptive parents giving their child the opportunity to be with other kids who looked like them, and she also cited students who didn’t have their culture shown to them by their adoptive parents.
“‘My dad being a Christian, he sees humans as of one blood. He tells me all the time, ‘Stop it, stop it, you're not Korean, you know you're American…’ He couldn’t fathom what it’s like to be a minority.’ Even though her father seemed to have good intentions, he adhered to the color-blind approach to race and thereby negated a central aspect of Selma’s identity” (pg 324 &325).
Dr. Tatum always uses really important quotes to help the reader understand the concept she is essentially teaching about. Each quote that she picks out, and each study has its own story, whether it is an entire section, or just a page, she really makes it work.
That is why I enjoyed this book so much. Even though at the beginning, you would see that in my first blog post I complained about there being so many statistics and facts, in hindsight, I realize why that is so important to the foundation of the book. She utilizes that section to give the reader the cold hard facts and statistics on racism, and then she uses the rest of the book to explain in detail what all of those statistics mean. Dr. Tatum gives logical, and emotional appeals to help the reader understand each concept more thoroughly.
For example, since I am white, I do not really understand how racism feels. Though with Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? I feel as if I can almost emotionally understand what it would feel like to have certain comments, gestures or actions done to spite my race. I in no means am trying to say I know what racism feels like, though with the help of Dr. Tatum, my eyes have been opened wider to be able to see racism.
The thing that I learned most from Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? is that the best way to be an ally, is to be there for people who have experienced racism and to not dismiss their emotions. In just about every section of her book, no matter if it was on racism and a growing identity, or multiracial families, one thing stayed the same, and that was the fact that simply listening is one of the best ways to be an ally. By listening, you learn about why someone would feel the way they do after a racist comment, and you also learn how to identify racist behavior from the perpetrator. By listening, you can start looking for behaviors that should be stopped, and you can do something about it. You could tell them to stop, and call them out on their racist comment. Or you could support a friend when they need it. That small gesture alone is so important.
All in all, I truly enjoyed Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? I really learned a lot, which cannot simply be summed up in a few sentences for a blog post. I think it helped me see the world in a different lens. I would 100% recommend this book, as I think everyone could take a little piece of it with them.
Works Cited:
EmbraceRace. “Doing Race, Family and Culture Through Transracial Adoption.” EmbraceRace,
2021,
https://www.embracerace.org/resources/doing-race-family-culture-through-transracial-adoption
Hey Emily, I really thought that your final take always were very interesting and I more specifically thought that your statement about just accepting POC emotions on the subject of racism was interesting. While there is definitely a time and a place for that I also think that It is important that you discuss thing's and improve one another's understanding of the topic at hand.
ReplyDeleteI think that listening to others would help a lot of the situations we have in our country right now, not just race. I'm glad you recognized the importance of the data at the beginning of the book.
ReplyDeleteI think that white people need to speak up when we see racist or prejudiced comments and actions, and listen when we hear people talking about racism. It's extremely important, and I'm glad that you saw that as well. What do you think is an effective way to get over the awkward fear of speaking up that many people experience? Is it helped by reading things like this that fully explain these kinds of situations, or mentally preparing oneself for the worst-case scenario before speaking up, or is there something else that would help people to speak up when they need to?
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