Tatum Part 1

Part 1

A lot of things in this part of the book were very interesting and some of it felt like a review from my black history class. I did appreciate the way she tried to differentiate between the different types of racism and that many white people find themselves benefiting from an overt racism.

I had mentioned this in an earlier post about schools being segregated by neighborhoods and the make up of the neighborhoods. The neighborhoods that these schools are in usually wind up being schools with high graduation rates.

I am sure that in ways that are blind to me and things that I do not notice I have benefited from racism. I am an immigrant yet before my parents open their mouths that are something that goes unnoticed. My skin color allows me a certain anonymous clock about who I am and what my nationally I am.

Which brings up the point of the second chapter and how racism and skin color doesn’t give people the anonymity that white skin does.

The author brought up many interesting points in the first two chapters that I am interested to see if she will reflect on further in the book.  I do feel that this book is a loaded gun kind of book, the author strikes me as abrasive and believes that if you are not agreeing with her points you are wrong.

One of the things that bothered me was the way she spoke about the young man who said that he wouldn’t make an effort to change things and compared it to other students in her class. I have taken a black studies class and found that when I wrote a paper that was not what my professor wanted to hear my grade was lower than I deserved whereas when I wrote a paper with my political and racial ideals showing that my mind was changed was my grade. I understand that she is trying to make a point about how you can change minds about racism but maybe a classroom with graded papers where most students will write what they think there professor wants to hear is the best way to do so?

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.