Beverly Daniel Tatums Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria - Essay Example

The paper under consideration presents the analysis of Beverly Daniel Tatum’s “Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria”. The core of the paper is to determine the nature of racism and show Tatum’s main point view on racial segregation and African-American isolation. Through the article, she attempts to highlight how racism has developed in the African American population through constant analysis and comparison to other ethnic groups and why this phenomenon occurs.

The rhetorical strategies used are not expressed effectively, as the majority of the assessments of modern black racism are speculatory and often based on personal judgment without adequate justification for opinion. Introduction Beverly Daniel Tatum’s “Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria” is an exploration of racism as it pertains to black youths and the role of racism as compared to the White dominant social norm. Tatum attempts to illustrate the phenomenon of why racially-similar groups, especially African Americans, tend to remain segregated in same-race groups without inter-mingling in the social environment.

Through the article, she attempts to highlight how racism has developed in the African American population through constant analysis and comparison to other ethnic groups and why this phenomenon occurs. . Tatum believes that her definition of racism is “a system involving cultural messages and institutional policies and practices as well as the beliefs and actions of individuals’’ (Tatum, 7). Here, Tatum attempts to create an appeal to pathos by further highlighting her own credibility related to her own sociology knowledge, but it too is ineffective since the author does not explore the issue further using concrete information from reputable sociological or political science data sources.

The author is, instead, creating a sense of bias in the process, somewhat over-analyzing the actual realities of lifestyle with each ethnic group. Rather, Tatum manages, it seems, to simply assume certain sociological characteristics about White groups or African-American groups and therefore does not manage to instill a sense of integrity or knowledge-based authority when making her argument about the phenomenon of group-oriented ethnic segregation and prejudice. Tatum’s ethos arguments, in an attempt to appeal to the readers’ emotions, also does not do a significant job of instilling sympathy for the plight of African-Americans in today’s society.

Tatum suggests that this segregation occurring is a product of White privilege and therefore receive preferential treatment in all elements of society. A reputable educator from the Philadelphia school district believes this also, offering that this is a hypocritical form of reasoning (Paslay, 3). Tatum’s attempt to instill compassion and condolence for the state of African-American isolation from the rest of society simply does not achieve its intended ethos results as it, again, illustrates that