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Beverly Daniel TatumWhy Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Critical Issues in Latinx, Native, Asian and Pacific Islander, and Middle Eastern / North African Identity Development”
As with Black adolescents, experiences with racism play a fundamental role in the identity development of other adolescents of color. Psychologist Jean Phinney’s ethnic identity development model consists of three phrases: unexamined ethnic identity, ethnic identity search, and achieved ethnic identity. As with Black and White people, the identity search is often triggered by an encounter with racism.
Latinxs are now the largest population of color in the United States, but they are an extremely heterogeneous group. About two-thirds are of Mexican ancestry, with the first Mexican Americans becoming a part of US society against their will after the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Puerto Ricans were similarly forced to become US citizens following the Spanish-American War in 1898. Cubans, Salvadorans, and people of many other national origins have immigrated to the US throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, driven by economic conditions, political factors, natural disasters, violence, or other reasons. As heterogeneous as they are, Latinxs are to a large extent unified by some shared cultural values, such as familism. In contrast to White Americans, Latinxs tend to be more family oriented and feel a stronger sense of obligation to support their family members. Young Latinxs growing up in US society have to contend with a conflict between their home culture and the dominant culture. They may try to assimilate into the dominant culture, or they may avoid it as much as possible. They may try to bridge the two by being bicultural, but this may also result in not being fully accepted in either one.
Language is also central to many Latinxs’ identity, with Spanish being spoken by most (though not all). Some children may feel ashamed that they speak Spanish and so they avoid using it, a result of the negative societal messages which devalue the language. Schools may contribute to this process by treating their native language as a barrier to learning rather than a resource. As they grow older and undertake an examination of their ethnic identity, they may actively reclaim their Spanish. Although the great majority of Latinxs are US citizens or documented immigrants, they can also be affected by the stereotype that they are “illegals.” For those who are undocumented, their status can be a source of immense stress and fear. Some parents try to protect their children by not telling them that they are undocumented, which can result in despair and isolation when they eventually learn that they can’t apply for college or jobs (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, has provided a way out of such a situation for many young immigrants since its creation in 2012).
Like Latinxs, Native Americans are a diverse population, consisting of 567 cultural communities. In the centuries following the arrival of Europeans in North America, an estimated 90 percent of Native Americans died from diseases. More were killed in military conflicts and forced relocations. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, American Indian children were taken from their families and put in boarding schools, where they suffered from abuse and forced assimilation. In the 1940s and 1950s, the government relocated many Indians to urban areas, which caused alcoholism, suicide, and homicide rates to skyrocket. In the words of one Native woman, they are “survivors or multigenerational loss” (260). In the present day, American Indians are stereotyped in the media and used as mascots of schools and sports teams. Not only are these portrayals demeaning, but young Native Americans grow up with a very narrow range of images of their own group. In recent decades, some organizations have made an effort to portray a broader range of images and to emphasize that Native people are “not a relic of the past but a growing community with a future” (268).
Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans similarly consist of people who come from a multitude of different backgrounds, but their group identity has been made possible because the dominant culture treats them as the same, and they therefore have similar experiences with racism. Chinese immigrants have resided in the US since the 19th century and were frequently targets of bigotry and violence. Japanese immigrants similarly have a long history in the US and were targeted by anti-Japanese sentiment in the wake of Pearl Harbor in 1941, resulting in many being incarcerated in internment camps. The 1965 Immigration Act abolished racial quotas and paved the way for increased levels of immigration, including people from China, Korea, the Philippines, India, and other countries. After the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, a number of refugees from Southeast Asia also made their way to the US. Others became a part of US society by colonization rather than migration, particularly Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders.
Asian Americans are frequently stereotyped as the “model minority” who are academically and economically successful. Some groups who immigrate from Asia to the US disproportionately consist of people who are highly educated, which has created the perception that Asian Americans in general are highly educated as well. For Asian American students, this can sometimes become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” (280) in that they do well at school because everyone expects it of them. For other students, it can mean feeling like a failure and becoming distanced from their ethnic community—feeling like they aren’t “Vietnamese enough” or not “authentically Korean” (281)—because they haven’t achieved the high standards set for them. The model minority stereotype is also harmful in that it obscures the reality that Asian Americans are also targets of racism.
Americans have the tendency to categorize people from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as Arab or Muslim, but the reality is that they are an ethnically and religiously heterogeneous group. Regardless of whether they are actually Arab or Muslim, the MENA population has been stereotyped as “terrorists” in the years since 9/11 attacks. The hostility toward Islam has had a profound effect on young Muslims, with one student saying it was exhausting to “constantly feel that you have to be on the defensive and justify who you are” (290). Author Amani al-Khatahtbeh described the shame she felt when she denied being Muslim as a child, and the empowerment she found when she finally decided to reclaim her identity. Feelings of isolation can be reduced by having Muslim friends to connect with, and non-Muslims can also make a difference by helping them feel like they belong. Tatum suggests that educators can support their MENA and Muslim students by educating themselves, by vocally opposing Islamophobia, and by making sure they feel included in the school community.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Identity Development in Multiracial Families”
The identity development of multiracial children depends on a wide array of factors, including (but not limited to) which races are involved, the physical appearance of the child, the family situation, and the environment they live in. While there are of course many racial combinations, Tatum mainly focuses in this chapter on children of one Black parent and one White parent. Historically, the “one-drop rule” meant that anyone with any Black ancestry was classified as Black, even if their appearance was wholly that of a White person. It was a practice that “solidified the boundary between Black and White” (301). Today, racially ambiguous people may frequently hear the question, “What are you?” People seek to racially classify them as their existence challenges those racial boundaries.
Sociologists Kerry Ann Rockquemore and David Brunsma conducted a large-scale study of how Black-White biracial people understand who they are. Some develop a singular identity, either identifying exclusively as Black or exclusively as White. Those with a Black identity are often assumed to be Black based on their appearance, and so they identify as Black because it is how society treats them. Michelle, on the other hand, is one of the 3 percent of participants who identify as exclusively White. She is perceived by society as White and she lives in an almost entirely White community. She is open about the fact that her father is Black, but Blackness is not a part of her own identity.
The majority of participants have a border identity, in which they don’t think of themselves as Black or White, but as a separate category which incorporates both. Sometimes this identity is validated by others, as is the case for Anthony, who is racially ambiguous and attends a school with many other biracial students. Other times their identity is not validated, as is the case for Chris. Although she identifies as biracial, others assume she is Black based on her appearance. A small number of participants have a protean identity, who are “multicultural ‘border-crossers,’ shifting from one identity to another with relative ease” (312). The remainder have a transcendent identity in which they simply do not see themselves in terms of race and refuse to assign themselves to a racial category.
While physical appearance plays a role in the identity development process, the parents also play a highly significant role. They make decisions on where their child lives and attends school, which in turn affect whether the children have access to racially mixed social networks. Some parents may provide their child with positive messages about their Black heritage, while others may devalue it. Some may encourage a biracial identity by providing their child with positive exposure to both Black and White social groups, while others with a color-blind ideology may not want to talk about racial issues at all. The lack of dialogue on race and racism can particularly impact children of color who are adopted by White parents, since they lack an adult of color in their family. They may end up feeling alienated from White people because their physical appearance sets them apart, yet not accepted within their racial or ethnic group because of their lack of cultural knowledge. Tatum emphasizes that before adopting a child of color, White parents should be prepared to talk about racial issues and to accompany their child as they navigate their encounters with racism.
Part 4 Analysis
Throughout these two chapters, Tatum repeatedly emphasizes the heterogeneity of the groups that she discusses. There is no single way that multiracial people experience being multiracial, and there is a great amount of diversity among Latinxs, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islander Americans, Muslims, and people of MENA heritage. They have different national origins, they come from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, they have different religions, they have different cultures, they speak different languages, and they migrate for different reasons (or in some cases, they became a part of US society through colonization). Even those who come from the same country can have very different experiences, such as the light-skinned upper-class Cuban immigrants who came to the US shortly after the Cuban Revolution, versus the dark-skinned impoverished Cuban immigrants who came later. When people are grouped under a single label—whether it’s “Latinx,” “Cuban,” or any other label—it can have homogenizing consequences. It can oversimplify people who identify with the group and erase their internal differences. In an attempt to counteract such assumptions, Tatum is careful to note that each of these groups is far more diverse than can possibly be captured in the space of a few chapters.
Although some of these groups do have other characteristics in common, such as certain cultural values, the main thing that unites them is racism. If Asian Americans are perceived as the same by the dominant culture, then they will have similar experiences with racism, and the same goes for other groups. As Tatum discussed in Chapter 1, the dominant group is often ignorant about the subordinate groups. In this ignorance, harmful stereotypes are allowed to flourish: Latinxs are seen as “illegal” immigrants, Native Americans are seen as a “relic of the past” (268), Asian Pacific Americans are seen as quiet and content with the status quo, and Arabs and Muslims (who are believed to be one and the same) are seen as “terrorists”.
There are many parts in these chapters that provide a look into the history of racism in the US. Chinese immigrants in the 19th century were reviled for supposedly ruining the economy, not unlike how immigrants today (and particularly Latinx immigrants) are accused of stealing jobs. Japanese Americans were labeled the enemy after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which bears a resemblance to the heightened bigotry aimed at Muslims, Arabs, and people of MENA ancestry in the years since 9/11. The one-drop rule meant that people were considered Black if they had any Black ancestry, and today Black-White biracial people are still likely to be treated by society as simply Black. These parallels between history and the modern day are a reminder that although many things have changed, not everything has changed. Racism continues to have a pervasive presence.
When it comes to the identity development of the groups discussed in these chapters, many of the key takeaways are the same as in previous sections. An exploration of one’s racial or ethnic identity often begins by having an encounter with racism. The challenge is then to overcome the negative societal messages about one’s own group and to find a positive sense of group identity. The pain of feeling isolated and marginalized can be reduced by having same-group peers to rely on for support and by having allies who publicly voice their support as well.
