In a famous book entitled "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" psychologist Dr. Beverly Tatum Daniel suggests that it is a very important and healthy phase of identity development for minority students to form homogeneous groups--groups that share their characteristics (for example race, religion, sexuality). What do you think? Would you ever choose to sit at a lunch table of people with whom you felt you had nothing in common? *Bonus suggestion: try it and write about the experience. Go sit at a random table; call it an anthropological experiment...How did they react; how did you?
7 comments:
I actually once sat at a lunch table with only Asian kids. I mean, it wasn't like we didn't have anything in common--we were all girls, all in honors classes. But if you looked at us, I was the only white kid, the only blond kid at the table. It didn't really bother me, though. I really don't understand why people all sit with their same race, etc. in the cafeteria. In East Brunswick there doesn't seem to be as big a problem with this, but maybe it's because my lunch period is huge and different social groups have to sit with each other in order to actually fit in the cafeteria. I think in EB it's more of a social group issue than a race or religion thing. I never, ever see the "popular" kids sitting with the "nerds" or whatever. This doesn't necessarily apply to a diversity issue, but I just find it interesting that because EB is so diverse, we tend to gravitate more towards social groups for our identities than race, etc.
This is very interesting and coincidental because before reading this blog post, I visited the Capital in Washington D.C the day after Election Day and while in the cafeteria, I watched many workers eat their lunch. I was thinking about diversity and racism, since we recently discussed these issues in class, but especially because the first African American in United States history was just elected President. As I was thinking about the Change Obama has talked about and if racism will ever disappear in America, I started to notice who sat with who in that cafeteria. First, I saw that right in front of my table was a few tables put together and seated there was a group of African American women. Then, before looking at any other tables, I bet myself that there would be no tables with more than one race. As I looked around, I saw another table with only two African American women, a few white colleagues at a table, a group of white college students, another pair of African American colleagues, and scattered were pairs of people sitting together with the same race. And then scattered were people who did not sit with anyone. Although the whole cafeteria was not all that diverse, only one table had two people of different races. Personally, I would not mind sitting with people who did not have common interests as me. Last year, I sat with a boy who had completely different tastes in television programs and hobbies, but I enjoyed his company because he added something new to the table. If in the situation of eating in a cafeteria similar to the one in the Capital everyday, if I saw someone sitting by themselves, no matter what race or religion, I would sit with them. Even though I made the bet and the whole cafeteria was not extremely diverse to begin with, I still questioned why these people did not sit with people of different races. Maybe, as psychologist Dr. Beverly Tatum Daniel suggests, people do feel it is more healthy and important to mingle with people of the same race. Of course not everyone feels that way, but there obviously are still issues with race in the US. It’s still very interesting that even in a cafeteria located in the Capital of the “Melting Pot” United States of America, there was separation of race.
I definitaly think that there is nothing wrong if you are a minority and want to sit at a lunch table with people that can understand you and who are similar to you.
HOWEVER, if such a table exists in a cafeteria, these people should be open to other people and still be able to sit with or even talk to 'outsiders'. In other words, they shouldn't be exclusive. If they are, that would just hurt them in a way that they are sending out signals that say "oh, we don't want you here" or "you're not one of us".
So, it's fine hat a minority group sits together and talks about things they can empathize with each other on, but they definitaly should open their eyes to the rest of the world and associate themselves with other people, and not be exclusive.
I personally am completely comfortable with any type of race, religion, social group etc, as long as they treat me well and accept the fact that I may not be like them.
I've actually done that last year. I was the only Jew at the table, so I felt awkward because if I made any yiddish jokes or something like that I knew they wouldn't understand. I ended up becoming good friends with them but it felt wierd the first couple of weeks.
Andrew E.
Maximus
man..........that's straight bull
i'm black and i dont sit in an all black table. i never have and i probably never will. i personally sit with people who i chill, talk, hang around with.
for example, my lunch table last year was diverse. we had 2 black kids, 2 white kids, 2 hispanics, 2 indians, a korean kid, and some others i cant remember on the top of my head
what im saying is that i sit with people who i know. i dont care if they are black, white, red, blue, green, if i'm cool with you, i'm going to sit by you
(cutie)
per 8/9
This is a typical situation that is seen in other schools more often than EBHS. We generally sit with kids of the same ethnic background because that is who we are comfortable sitting with. We were raised in a specific environment and we don't want to leave our comfort level so we sit with others who are just like us. It can also be very awkward sitting with others you don't know. The table will get less awkward as the year goes by, but most people don't want to take that chance of sitting with new people.
We generally sit with other kids who are just like us not only because we are familiar with their cultures, but because we were brought up in a family who shares the same characteristics that they do. Sitting with other kids is outside our comfort level. It isn't so hard to sit with new kids. Although it is very awkward at first, you will get to know them and the awkwardness will go away after a couple of weeks. That is why people are afraid to sit with different kid at lunch; they are afraid of the awkward situation.
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