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Document Type

Reviews and Responses

Abstract

Beverly Daniel Tatum’s most popular work outlines racial identity development and the challenges with having meaningful conversations on race. In order to engage the reader in self-reflection to have such conversations, Tatum uses practical examples from her experience as a parent and a college professor. She highlights conversations she has had with her own children about race and racism, as well as teaching activities she has used and discussions she has facilitated to engage her college students in recognizing, understanding, and embracing their racial identity.

In the first section of the text, Tatum draws attention the term racism. She distinguishes between prejudice and racism, by describing prejudice as preconceived judgments or opinions made with limited information. Prejudice is considered a consequence of cultural racism, where images and messages affirm assumed White superiority and assumed inferiority of non-Whites, also referred to as People of Color. Racism is then considered to be a system, where some received advantage based on race (see Portraits of White Racism, David Wellman). While somewhat late in the discussion of racism, Tatum does acknowledge the social construction of race and how the complexity of defining race presents a challenge when defining one’s multiple identities and their intersections.

Publication Date

2013-2014

Journal Title

UNIversitas

Volume

9

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

3

Copyright

©2014 Stephanie R. Logan

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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