Part 2
Hello and welcome back to my blog! Today I will be analyzing the second part of “Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?” This section focuses on blackness in a white context and the development of racial identity.
As a white girl from a 93.6% white state (US Census) and a far from racially diverse high school, it’s fair to say that I am not well versed when it comes to social development in black children. With that said I am skeptical of the first subsection in this chapter on early development, there were some strong examples of internalized racial bias. On page 127 Dr.Tatum described a conversation she had with her oldest son.
“The Spanish-accented voice of cheech Marin and the Black slang of Whoopi Goldberg marked the hyenas racially. The little Lion King is warned never to go to the place where the hyenas live. When the evil lion (darker in shade than the good lion) takes over and the hyenas have access to power, it is not long before they ruin the kingdom.(pg 127)”
This isn’t the only time Disney has been “racially insensitive,” remember Peter Pan? Looking back the depiction of Native Americans is far from flattering and feeds right into the negative stereotypes. Crime shows are also nitrous for racial stereotyping as well (ethnic criminals and white detectives), you know what all these shows/movies have in common? Kids love them. Children are impressionable and kids like these kinds of programs, this constant exposure to stereotypes will begin to rub off and have an effect on the child's perception. Explaining one of the reasons why even a Black boy would assume that the Black teenager was a criminal.
Even though citing real-life examples can be the most powerful tools of persuasion a writer can use Dr.Tatum in my opinion used too many. She references her parenting so many times throughout this subsection; it came off more pretentious than it was intended. She was always talking about how she was raising her kids right and without shame or bias, it almost felt like bragging. I think it's incredible that you're raising your kids like that just the constant interjection at every point possible became distracting from the main points of the section for me personally. With that said this section was very informative, and I look forward to what comes next.
Until next time,
KM
As a white girl from a 93.6% white state (US Census) and a far from racially diverse high school, it’s fair to say that I am not well versed when it comes to social development in black children. With that said I am skeptical of the first subsection in this chapter on early development, there were some strong examples of internalized racial bias. On page 127 Dr.Tatum described a conversation she had with her oldest son.
“One Saturday afternoon, after attending choir rehearsal at our local church , located in a black section of a nearby city, my oldest son and I drove past a Black teenager running down the street.“Why is that boy running?” my son asked. “I don't know,” I said absentmindedly. “Maybe he stole something” he suggested. (pg 127)”
This does show a type of racial conditioning in a way her son saw a black teenager running in the city, and he subconsciously categorized this boy as a potential criminal. So I started to think about why that is. I feel like it is important to note that Dr.Tatum and her family do live in a predominantly white area, I think it is possible that the location in which they live does have an effect on internalized stereotyping but is not the only factor. Think of movies and TV shows, even though it has been improving a lot of the time the “bad guys” are ethnic and the heroes are white. Of course, this isn't every movie or TV show, but this is a prominent pattern. It's even present in Disney movies; an example that was used in the book was Lion King.“The Spanish-accented voice of cheech Marin and the Black slang of Whoopi Goldberg marked the hyenas racially. The little Lion King is warned never to go to the place where the hyenas live. When the evil lion (darker in shade than the good lion) takes over and the hyenas have access to power, it is not long before they ruin the kingdom.(pg 127)”
This isn’t the only time Disney has been “racially insensitive,” remember Peter Pan? Looking back the depiction of Native Americans is far from flattering and feeds right into the negative stereotypes. Crime shows are also nitrous for racial stereotyping as well (ethnic criminals and white detectives), you know what all these shows/movies have in common? Kids love them. Children are impressionable and kids like these kinds of programs, this constant exposure to stereotypes will begin to rub off and have an effect on the child's perception. Explaining one of the reasons why even a Black boy would assume that the Black teenager was a criminal.
Even though citing real-life examples can be the most powerful tools of persuasion a writer can use Dr.Tatum in my opinion used too many. She references her parenting so many times throughout this subsection; it came off more pretentious than it was intended. She was always talking about how she was raising her kids right and without shame or bias, it almost felt like bragging. I think it's incredible that you're raising your kids like that just the constant interjection at every point possible became distracting from the main points of the section for me personally. With that said this section was very informative, and I look forward to what comes next.
Until next time,
KM
Hey Kaila,
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading your second blog post! As somebody who is also reading the same book, it is comforting to know that I am not the only one that thinks that the author overuses real life examples, and makes her seem as though she is entirely perfect when nobody really is. I found that your opinions and comments on the prejudice formed by T.V. shows and movies to be very insightful. Why do you think that these forms of entertainment subtly use race? Do you think that this is continuing to happen more or less in today's society?
Hi Kaila! I really enjoyed reading your blog. From the quote that you inserted from the book of page 127, I can tell that there is a strong stereotype of Black people and it makes me question, "if it was a white person who was running down the street, would people think he was stealing too?" You mentioned in the last paragraph that the writer cited real-life examples but I kind of think that it could be beneficial if you used more examples from the book! I'm excited to see what this book has for you in the near future.
ReplyDeleteKaila, you've discussed the main point of this section pretty well. Do you think that she balances her own personal examples with enough examples from her professional experience? Does her psychology background matter in this context?
ReplyDeleteNo, there was a significantly lower number of professional examples than I thought there would be for a chapter on development and I think that was a point of weakness. Dr.Tatum's psychology background does hold a lot of weight when it comes to her opinion identity, but that didn't shine through in this chapter. I wish she utilized her background and professional experience more than she did because it would have lead to a stronger chapter with a more substantial impact.
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