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Beverly Tatum on Clinton's Town Hall Meeting on Race: Not All Talk Is Cheap

Editor's note: Beverly Daniel Tatum, professor of psychology and education and author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race, wrote this editorial essay, which appeared in New York Newsday, and is excerpted here.

Since my return from Akron where I participated in President Clinton's Town Hall Meeting on Race, I have heard more than one cynical person say that talk is cheap. I suspect that those who make that claim have not spent much time engaged in cross-racial dialogue. If they had, they would know, as the students in my psychology of racism classes at Mount Holyoke do, that honest dialogue about racial issues is not cheap; it is very hard to come by.

It is hard for white people, in particular, to push past years of socialization that have taught them that speaking publicly about race, especially in racially mixed settings, is taboo. It is hard to push past the fear that a well-intentioned remark will be misunderstood as racist, or that the prejudices absorbed from televised stereotypes and the casual remarks of friends and family will surface unexpectedly. It is hard for people of color, in particular, to talk about their lived experiences with racism without opening old wounds. It is hard to push past fears that painful stories will be shared only to be scrutinized and invalidated by those who have not lived them, or that expressions of frustration will be dismissed as inappropriate emotionalism. It is hard for all to risk the possibility of conflict and the guarantee of discomfort that accompanies genuine dialogue about racism. When such talk happens, you can be assured it wasn't cheap.

But does it lead to action? In my eighteen years of experience leading such discussions, I have found that it usually does. Whether it is the action of beginning to interrupt racist jokes, or writing letters to broadcasters to protest offensive programming, or the organizing of a study group in one's neighborhood, or the challenging of discriminatory policies and practices in one's workplace, a desire to act is the frequent response to the deepening understanding of racism which comes through dialogue.

Finding the courage to act often means looking for role models ... So when they consider taking action, they are desperate for examples to serve as guideposts along their way.

In that context, the impact of seeing President Clinton, a very powerful and privileged white man, publicly engaged in conversation about race with a racially mixed audience, and repeatedly urging others to do the same, should not be underestimated. While the televised conversation inevitably lacked the tension that less public attempts at dialogue usually have, it provided important modeling for those who were watching. Not only did we see President Clinton providing leadership by breaking the silence about racism, but we heard white people and people of color testify to the power of dialogue in their own lives, offering the possibility of coalition-building and action-taking. My students know that examples of bigotry are a dime a dozen. Well-publicized living examples of anti-racist action are few and far between. We were offered useful and desperately needed examples in the President's Town Hall Meeting in Akron, examples for which many people hunger--and that's not cheap.