This
Op-ed ran in the New York Times on Sunday, July 2, 2000 as
part of a larger article titled "America, Seen Through the Filter
of Race"
OP-ED ON RACISM
By Beverly Danial Tatum
Many white people think of
racism as a problem of individual bigotry and hatred, while people
of color often understand it as an intricate web of individual
attitudes, cultural messages and institutional practices that
systematically advantage whites and disadvantage people of color.
If you believe that individual acts of meanness are the problem,
then the solution is individual acts of kindnesspolite, respectful
behavior, maybe even friendly outreach. White students often use
that strategy to connect with black classmates. In a study of
undergraduates at the University of California at Berkeley, sociologist
Troy Duster found that white students wanted more opportunities
to just "hang out" with black classmates, having lunch or going
for pizza.
But if your understanding is that a system is operating to reinforce
cultural stereotypes, limit opportunities and foster a climate
in which bigotry can be expressed, then the solution is a concerted
daily effort to interrupt that system. It means objecting to jokes,
challenging policies, advocating for greater inclusion. It requires
more than being nice, and the black students were not so interested
in sharing pizza, but in engaging white classmates in structured
a dialogue about race relations.
Beverly Daniel Tatum is dean of the
college at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts
and author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in
the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race(Basic Books,
1997).
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