Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Short Thoughts: This is going to be one of my top recommendations for an introduction to racial issues. It isn't perfect, but it is very good. The 20th anniversary edition has a good introduction to racial history in the past 20 years (71 pages of introduction). The most important part of this book is the development of what child and teen racial identity development is like and why that is important. It includes discussion not just of traditional minority children's racial identity development, but also of White children, multi-racial children and minority adopted children of White parents. The nuanced development of those different groups makes this very helpful for teachers and others that work with children

The 20th anniversary edition is very current. I did not read the first edition, but the research and examples are all very up to date.

My concerns. One the narration is great and it is by the author, which I like. I do not like that the narration is not synced with the kindle edition. I mostly listened, but I have the kindle edition as well and I will read this later.

Second, while systemic issues were not ignored, I felt like the ending section on interpersonal dialogue and the hope around that was too focused in the individual and not focused enough on the systemic. Racism is primarily a systemic problem that has ramifications on the individual. It is not primarily an individual problem with systemic ramifications. So that part I think is framed wrong. But I still think this is an excellent introduction to issues around race.

My longer thoughts are on my blog at http://bookwi.se/why-are-all-the-black-kids-sitting-together-in-the-cafeteria/