"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?"
If you were born in 1997 you were four when 9/11 happened, 11 when the economy crashed in 2008, 15 when a black teenager named Trayvon Martin was murdered and his killer went free. In 2014 you were 17 when Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson Missouri, and 19 when Donald Trump was elected President.
Dr. Beverly Tatum's 1997 book on race relations, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria has become a modern classic found in many classrooms. In this week's episode of Just the Right Book Podcast, the former Spelman College president joins Roxanne for a live event at Wesleyan RJ Julia to talk about the 20th anniversary edition of her time-honored book and how race relations has evolved in the past two decades.
Talking about twenty-year old adults today, Tatum says "94% of them will say they have witnessed instances of bias, seeing someone treated unfairly because of their group membership. And yet only 20% of that 94% will say that they are comfortable talking about bias instances. So for that reason, I describe them as not color blind, but color silent."
And stay tuned after our conversation with Dr. Beverly Tatum to hear Roxanne's chat with with Girly Book Club founder, Erin Woodward who's bookclub has over 60,000 members in 12 countries!
Books in this episode:
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Nix by Nathan Hill
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Strange Fits of Passion by Anita Shreve
One Day Closer: A Mother's Quest to Bring Her Kidnapped Daughter Home by Lorinda Stewart
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
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