Embracing A Cross-Racial Dialogue Analysis

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One reason Tatum used to explain why it is profitable to speak about racism and encourage others to break the silence is that, “unchallenged personal, cultural, and institutional racism results in the loss of human potential, lowered productivity, and a rising tide of fear and violence in our society” (pg. 200). When reading the chapter, Embracing a Cross-Racial Dialogue, I noticed one question showing up continuously when discussing breaking the silence of racism. If I don't do it, who will? This question really stood out to me for a few reasons. Tatum shared multiple examples and stories from some of her previous students, whether they be white, black, asian, or of any other race. One story that stuck out to me was one that a young Asian-American…show more content…
The only way to overcome this fear is to find the courage, and there is courage in numbers. One way to find the courage one would need to break the silence is to find others who are willing (and trying) to do the same thing. Also, learn the history of those like you that have made a difference and broke the silence about racism in the past. One example would be those abolitionists that assisted with the Underground Railroad and helping to free the slaves. I'm almost 100% positive that those people were scared of many things, yet they found the courage to help those who were being wrong. Harriet Tubman helped nearly 70 slaves to freedom, if not more. There are many fears that people face when faced with breaking the silence about racism. People may ask themselves many questions. How do I get past my fear? How do I get past my anger? Will I even make a difference?! Those people who are trying to make a difference that are white may worry about saying the wrong thing to someone, and anger someone of color. Isolation from friends, family, and loved ones or even negative sanctions are fears that people may/will/can face when breaking the…show more content…
Tatum mentioned multiple examples of books she was reading with her children where racism was evident to her, yet to a child it wasn't. One example was of a series of books she had read when she was a child, and she was reading again with her son. As she was rereading them she began to notice how much sexism was evident in the series now that she was older. The four children, two young girls and two young boys, had gotten taken in by their wealthy grandfather. Tatum pointed out to her son that the girls were continuously doing dishes or cleaning, while the boys were doing the work. Tatum explained to her son that this was unfair treatment to the girls. By pointing out the unfair treatment to her son, he was able to recognize it on a separate occasion by himself. Learning to recognize sexism, racism, or any other 'ism' is a very crucial power for a child to have. By having this ability to recognize oppression helps to reject the destructive influence of messages caused by oppression.There are many ways in which we can teach children how to recognize derogatory depictions of other people as stereotypes and how to respond to them. Tatum had a good example of how to do this with her son and the book series they were reading together. Another example she used is when she explained the racism that was hidden in the ever popular
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