In what ways are their identity crises similar?

HWhy Are All the Black Kids Sitti ng

,Together in the Cafeteri a?” And Other Conversations About Race

Beverly Daniel Tatum~ Ph.D.

B BOOKS

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

Copyright © 1997 by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D.

1999 Introduction copyright © 1999 by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D.

Epilogue copyright © 2003 by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D.

Published by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States ofAmerica.

No part of this book may be used in any manner whatsoever without written per- mission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in crih-cal’ articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. “Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” and other

conversations about race I Beverly Daniel Tatum. – rev. ed. p. em.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-465-08361-7 1. Afro-Americans-Race identity. 2. Whites-United States-Race identity.

3. Afro-Americans-Psychology. 4. Whites-United States-Psychology. 5. Race awareness-United States. 6. United States-Race relations. I. Title EI85.625.T38 1997 30S.8’00973-dc21

0403/1098765432

4 ——————————————————— Identity Development in Adolescence

“Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?”

Walk into any racially mixed high school cafeteria at lunch time and you will instantly notice that in the sea ofadolescent faces, there is an identifiable group of Black students sitting together. Conversely, it could be pointed out that there are many groups ofWhite students sitting together as well, though people rarely comment about that. The question on the tip of everyone’s tongue is “Why are the Black kids sitting together?” Principals want to know, teachers want to know,White students want to know, the Black students who aren’t sit-

ting at the table want to know. How does it happen that so many Black teenagers end up at the

same cafeteria table? They don’t start out there. If you walk into racially mixed elementary schools, you will often see young children of diverse racial backgrounds playing with one another, sitting at the snack table together, crossing racial boundaries with an ease uncom-

mon in adolescence. Moving from elementary school to middle school (often at sixth or seventh grade) means interacting with new children from different neighborhoods than before, and a certain degree of clustering by race might therefore be expected, presuming that children who are familiar with one another would form groups. But even in schools where the same children stay together from kindergarten through eighth grade, racial grouping begins by the sixth or seventh grade. What happens?

One thing that happens is puberty. As children enter adolescence, they begin to explore the question of identity, asking “Who am I? Who can I be?” in ways they have not done before. For Black youth,

52

Identity Development in Adolescence 53

asking “Who am !?” includes thinking about “Who am I ethnically and/or racially? What does it mean to be Black?”

As I write this, I can hear the voice ofaWhite woman who asked

me, “Well, all adolescents struggle with questions of identity. They all become more self-conscious about their appearance and more con- cerned about what their peers think. So what is so different for Black

kids?” Ofcourse, she is right that all adolescents look at themselves in

new ways, hut not all adolescents think about themselves in racial terms.

The search for personal identity that intensifies in adolescence can involve several dimensions ofan adolescent’s life: vocational plans,

religious beliefS, values and preferences, political affiliations and beliefS..gender roles, and ethnic identities. The process of exploration

may v~ry. across these identity domains. James Marcia described four identity “statuses” to characterize the variation in the identity search

process: (1) diffuse, a state in which there has been litde exploration or active consideration of a particular domain, and no psychological commitment; (2) foreclosed, a state in which a commitment has been made to particular roles or belief systems, often those selected by par- ents, without actively considering alternatives; (3) moratorium, a state ofactive exploration ofroles and beliefs in which no commitment has

yet been made; and (4) achieved, a state of strong personal commit- ment to a particular dimension of identity following a period of high exploration.1

An individual is not likely to explore all identity domains at once, therefore it is not unusual for an adolescent to be actively exploring

one dimension while another remains relatively unexamined. Given

the impact ofdominant and subordinate status, it is not surprising .that

researchers have found that adolescents of color are more likely to be actively engaged in an exploration of their racial or ethnic identity than are White adolescents.2

Why do Black youths, in particular, think about themselves in terms of race? Because that is how the rest of the world thinks of them. Our self-perceptions are shaped by the messages that we receive

54 Underslanding Blackness in a While Conlexl

from those around us, and when young Black men and women enter

adolescence, the racial content of those messages intensifies. A case in

point: Ifyou were to ask my ten-year-old son, David, to describe him- self, he would tell you many things: that he is smart, that he likes to play computer games, that he has an older brother. Near the top of his list, he would likely mention that he is tall for his age. He would probably not mention that he is Black, though he certainly knows that he is.Why would he mention his height and not his racial group membership? When David meets new adults, one of the first ques- tions they ask is “How old are you?”When David states his age, the

inevitable reply is “Gee, you’re tall for your age!” It happens so fre- quently that I once overheard David say to someone, “Don’t say it, I

know. I’m tall for my age.” Height is salient for David because it is salient for others.

When David meets new adults, they don’t say, “Gee, you’re Black for your age!” Ifyou are saying to yourself, ofcourse they don’t, think again. Imagine David at fifteen, six-foot-two, wearing the adolescent

attire of the day, passing adults he doesn’t know on the sidewalk. Do the women hold their purses a little tighter, maybe even cross the street to avoid him? Does he hear the sound of the automatic door locks on cars as he passes by? Is he being followed around by the secu- rity guards -at the local mall? As he stops in town with his new bicy- cle, does a police officer hassle him, asking where he got it, implying that it might be stolen? Do strangers assume he plays basketball? Each of these exp eriences conveys a racial message. At ten, race is not yet

salient for David, because it is not yet salient for society. But it will be.

Understanding Racial Identity Development

Psychologist William Cross, author of Shades <if Black: Diversity in African American Identity, has offered a theory of racial identity devel- opment that I have found to be a very useful framework for under-

standing what is happening not only with David, but with those

Black students in the cafeteria.3 According to Cross’s model, referred

Identity Development in Adolescence 55

to as the psychology of nigrescence, or the psychology of becoming Black, the five stages of racial identity development are pre-encounter, encounter, immersion/emersion, internalization, and internalization-commit- ment. For the moment, we will consider the first two stages as those are the most relevant for adolescents.

In the first stage, the Black child absorbs many of the beliefS and values ofthe dominantWhite culture, including the idea that it is bet- ter to be White. The stereotypes, omissions, and distortions that rein-

force notions ofWhite superiority are breathed in by Black children as well as White. Simply as a function of being socialized in a

Eurocentric culture, some Black children may begin to value the tole models, lifestyles, and im~ges of beauty represented by the dominant group more higWy thaci those of their own cultural group. On the other hand, if Black parents are what I call race-conscious-that is, actively seeking to encourage positive racial identity by providing their children with positive cultural images and messages about what

it means to be Black-the impact of the dominant society’s messages are reduced.4 In either case, in the pre-encounter stage, the personal

and social significance of one’s racial group membership has not yet

been realized, and racial identity is not yet under examination. At age

ten, David and other children like him would seem to be in the pre-

encounter stage. When the environmental cues change and the world

begins to reflect his Blackness back to him more clearly, he will prob- ably enter the encounter stage.

Transition to the encounter stage is typically precipitated by an

event or series of events that force the young person to acknowledge

the personal impact of racism. fu the result of a new and heightened awareness of the significance of race, the individual begins to grapple

with what it means to be a member of a group targeted by racism.

Though Cross describes this process as one that unfolds in late ado-

lescence and early adulthood, research suggests that an examination of

one’s racial or ethnic” identity may begin as early as junior high school.

In a study ofBlack and White eighth graders from an integrated urban junior high school, Jean Phinney and Steve Tarver found clear

56 Understanding Blackness in a White Context

evidence for the beginning of the search process in this dimension of

identity. Among the forty-eight participants, more than a third had thought about the effects of ethnicity on their future, had discussed the issues with family and friends, and were attempting to learn more about their group. While White students in this integrated school were also beginning to think about ethnic identity, there was evidence to suggest a more active search among Black students, especially Black

females.S Phinney and Tarver’s research is consistent with my own study of Black youth in predominantly White communities, where the environmental cues that trigger an examination of racial identity

often become evident in middle school or junior high schoo1.6

Some of the environmental cues are institutionalized. Though many elementary schools have self-contained classrooms where chil-

dren of varying performance levels learn together, many middle and

secondary schools use “ability grouping:’ or tracking. Though school administrators often defend their tracking practices as fair and objec-

tive, there usually is a recognizable racial pattern to how children are

assigned, which often represents the system ofadvantage operating in the schools.’ In racially mixed schools, Black children are much more

likely to be in the lower track than in the honors track. Such appar- ent sorting along racial lines sends a message about what it means to be Black. One young honors student I interviewed described the irony of this resegregation in what was an otherwise integrated envi-

ronment, and hinted at the identity issues it raised for him.

It was really a very paradoxical existence, here I am in a

school that’s 35 percent Black, yO\! know, and I’m the only Black in my classes…. That always struck me as odd. I guess I felt that I was different from the other Blacks because of that.

In addition to the changes taking place within school, there are changes in the social dynamics outside school. For many parents,

puberty raises anxiety about interracial dating. In racially mixed com-

Identity Development in Adolescence 57

munities, you begin to see what I call the birthday party effect.Young children’s birthday parties in multiracial communities are often a reflection of the community’s diversity. The parties of elementary school children may be segregated by gender but not by race. At puberty, when the parties become sleepovers or boy”girl events, they become less and less racially diverse. ,

Black girls, especially in predominandy White communities, may gradually become aware that something has changed. When their White friends start to date, they do not. The issues of emerging sex- uality and the societal messages about who is sexually desirable leave young Black women in a very devalued position. One young woman from a Philadelphia suburb described herself as “pursuingWhite guys throughout high school” to no avail. Since there were no Black boys in her class, she had litde choice. She would feel “really pissed off”

that those same White boys would date her White friends. For her, “that prom thing was like out of the question.”8

Though Black girls living in the context of a larger Black com- munity may have more social choices, they too have to contend with devaluing messages about who they are and who they will become, especially if they are poor or working-class. As social scientists Bonnie Ross Leadbeater and Niobe Way point out,

The school drop-out, the teenage welfare mother, the drug addict, and the victim of domestic violence or of AIDS are among the most prevalent public images of poor and working-class urban adolescent girls….Yet,

despite the risks inherent in economic disadvantage, the

majority of poor urban adeolescent girls do not fit the stereotypes that are made about them.9

Resisting the stereotypes and affirming other definitions ofthem- selves is part of the task facing young Black women in both White and Black communities.

As was illustrated in the example of David, Black boys also face a

58 Understanding Blackness in aWhite Context

devalued status in the wider world. The all too familiar media image of a young Black man with his hands cuffed behind his back, arrested for a violent crime, has primed many to view young Black men with suspicion and fear. In the context ofpredominandy White schools, however, Black boys may enjoy a degree ofsocial success, par-

ticularly if they are athletically talented.The culture has embraced the Black athlete, and the young man who can fulfill that role is often

pursued by Black girls and White girls alike. But even these young men will encounter experiences that may trigger an examination of their racial identity.

Sometimes the experience is quite dramatic. The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a classic tale of racial identity development, and I assign it to my psychology ofracism students for just that reason. As a junior high school student, Malcolm was a star. Despite the fact that he was separated from his family and living in a foster home, he was an A stu- dent and was elected president ofhis class. One day he had a conver- sation with his English teacher, whom he liked and respected, about his future career goals. Malcolm said he wanted to be a lawyer. His teacher responded, “That’s no realistic goal for a nigger,” and advised

him to consider carpentry instead. 10 The message was clear:You are a

Black male, your racial group membership matters, plan accordingly. Malcolm’s emotional response was typical-anger, confusion, and alienation. He withdrew from his White classmates, stopped partici- pating in class, and eventually left his predominately white Michigan home to live with his sister in Roxbury, a Black community in Boston.

No teacher would say such a thing now, you may be thinking: but don’t be so sure. It is certainly less likely that a teacher would use the word nigger, but consider these contemporary examples shared by high school students. A young ninth-grade student was sitting in his homeroom. A substitute teacher was in charge of the class. Because

the majority of students from this school go on to college, she used the free time to ask the students about their college plans. As a sub- stitute she had very limited information about their academic perfor-

Identity Development in Adolescence 59

mance, but she offered some suggestions. When she turned to this young man, one of few Black males in the class, she suggested that he consider a community college. She had recommended four-year colleges to the other students. Like Malcolm, this student got the

message. In another example, a young Black woman attending- a dese,gre-

gated school to which she was bussed was encouraged by a teacherto

attend the upcoming school dance. Most of the Black students did not live in the neighborhood and seldom attended the extracurricu- lar activities. The young woman indicated that she wasn’t planning to

come.The well-intentioned teacher was persistent. Finally the teacher

said, “Oh come on, I know you people love to dance.” This young

woman got the message, too.

Coping with Encounters: Developing an Dppositionalldentity

What do these encounters have to do with the cafeteria? Do experi- ences with racism inevitably result in so-called self-segregation? While certainly a desire to protect oneself from further offense is understandable, it is not the only factor at work. Imagine the young eighth-grade girl who experienced the teacher’s use of”you people”

and the dancing stereotype as a racial affront. Upset and struggling with adolescent embarrassment, she bumps into aWhite friend who can see that something is wrong. She explains. Her White friend responds, in an effort to make her feel better perhaps, and says, “Oh, Mr. Smith is such a nice guy, I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that. Don’t be so sensitive.” Perhaps the White friend is right, and Mr. Smith didn’t mean it, but imagine your own response when you are

upset, perhaps with a spouse or partner. He or she asks what’s wrong and you explain why you are offended.Your partner brushes offyour complaint, attributing it to your being oversensitive.What happens to your emotional thermostat? It escalates. When feelings, rational or irrational, are invalidated, most people disengage. They not only choose to discontinue the conversation but are more likely to turn to

60 Understanding Blackness in a White Context

someone who will understand their perspective. In much the same way, the eighth-grade girl’s White friend doesn’t

get it. She doesn’t see the significance of this racial message, but the girls at the “Black table” do. When she tells her story there, one of them is likely to say, “You know what, Mr. Smith said the same thing tome yesterday!” Not only are Black adolescents encountering racism

and reflecting on their identity, but their White peers, even when they are not the perpetrators (and sometimes they are), are unprepared to respond in supportive ways. The Black students turn to each other for the much needed support they are not likely to find anywhere else.

Ill’ adolescence, as race becomes personally salient for Black youth, finding the answer to questions such as, “What does it mean to be a young Black person? How should I act? What should I do?” is particularly important. And although Black fathers, mothers, aunts,. and uncles may hold the answers by offering. themselves as role mod- els, they hold little appeal for most adolescents. The last thing many fourteen-year-olds want to do is to grow up to be like their parents. It is the peer group, the kids in the cafeteria, who hold the answers to these questions.They know how to be Black.They have absorbed the

stereotypical images of Black youth in the popular culture and are reflecting those images in their self-presentation.

Based on their fieldwork in U.S. high schools, Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu identified a common psychological pattern found among African American high school students at this stage of iden- tity development.” They observed that the anger and resentment that adolescents feel in response to their growing awareness of the sys- tematic exclusion ofBlack people from full participation in U.S. soci- ety leads to the development of an oppositional social identity. This oppositional stance both protects one’s identity from the psychologi- cal assault of racism and keeps the dominant group at a distance.

Fordham and Ogbu write:

Subordinate minorities regard certain forms of behav-

ior and certain activities or events, symbols, and mean-

Identity Development in Adolescence 61

ings as not appropriate for them because those behaviors, events, symbols, and meanings are characteristic of white Americans. At the same time they emphasize other forms of behavior as more appropriate for them

because these are not a part of white Americans’ way of life. To behave in the manner defined as falling within a white cultural frame of reference is to “act white” and

is negatively sanctioned. 12

Certain styles of speech, dress, and music, for example, may be embraced as “authentically Black” and become highly valued, while attitudes and behaviors associated with Whites are viewed with dis- dain. The peer groups’s evaluation of what is Black and what is not can have a powerful impact on adolescent behavior.

Reflecting on her high school years, one Black woman from a White neighborhood described both the pain of being rejected by her Black classmates and her attempts to conform to her peer’s defi- nition ofBlackness:

“Oh you sound White, you think you’re White,” they said. And the idea ofsoundingWhite was just so absurd

to me…. So ninth grade was sort of traumatic in that

I started listening to rap music, which I really just don’t like. [I said] I’m gonna be Black, and it was just that stu- pid. But it’s more than just how one acts, you know:. [The other Black women there] were not into me for the longest time. My first year there was hell.

Sometimes the emergence of an oppositional identity can be quite dramatic. as the young person tries on a new persona almost overnight. At the end of one school year, race may not have appeared to be significant, but often some encounter takes place over the sum-

mer and the young person returns to school much more aware of his or her Blackness and ready to make sure that the rest of the

62 Understanding Blackness in a White Context

world is aware of it, too. There is a certain “in your face” quality that these adolescents can take on, which their teachers often experience as threatening.When a group ofBlack teens are sitting together in the cafeteria, collectively embodying an oppositional stance, school administrators want to know not only why they are sitting together, but what can be done to prevent it.

We need to understand that in racially mixed settings, racial grouping is a developmental process in response to an environmental stressor, racism. Joining with one’s peers for support in the face of stress is a positive coping strategy. What is problematic is that the young people are operating with a very limited definition of what it means to be Black, based largely on cultural stereotypes.

Oppositionalldentily Development and Academic Achievement

Unfortunately for Black teenagers, those cultural stereotypes do not usually include academic achievement. Academic success is more often associated with being White. During the encounter phase of

racial identity development, when the search for identity leads toward cultural stereotypes and away from anything that might be associated with Whiteness, academic performance often declines. Doing well in school becomes identified as trying to be White. Being smart becomes the opposite of being cool.

While this frame of reference is not universally found among adolescents ofAfrican descent, it is commonly observed in Black peer groups. Among the Black college students I have interviewed, many described some conflict or alienation from other African American teens because of their academic success in high school. For example, a twenty-year-old female from aWashington, nc., suburb explained:

It was weird, even in high school a lot of the Black stu- dents were, like,”Well, you’re not really Black.”Whether it was because I became president of the sixth-grade

class or whatever it was, it started pretty much back

Identity Development in Adolescence 63

then. Junior high, it got worse. I was then labeled cer- tain things, whether it was “the area” or I wasn’t really Black.

Others described avoiding situations that would set them apart from their Black peers. For example, one young woman declined to participate in a gifted program in her school because· she knew it would separate her from the other Black students in the school.

In a study of thirty-three eleventh-graders in aWashington, nc., school, Fordham and Ogbu found that ·although some of the students

had once been academically successful, few of them remained so. These students also knew that to be identified as a “hrainiac” would result in peer rejection. The few students who had maintained strong

academic records found ways to play down their academic success enough to maintain some level of acceptance among their Black

peers. 13

Academically successful Black students also need a strategy to find acceptance among their White classmates. Fordham describes one such strategy as racelessness, wherein individuals assimilate into the dominant group by de-emphasizing characteristics that might iden- tify them as members of the subordinate group.” Jon, a young man I interviewed, offered a classic example of this strategy as he described

his approach to dealing with his discomfort at being the ouly Black person in his advanced classes. He said, “At no point did I ever think I was White or did I ever want to be White…. I guess it was one of those things where I tried to de-emphasize the fact that I was Black.”

This strategy led him to avoid activities that were associated with Blackness. He recalled, “I didn’t want to do anything that was tradi- tionally Black, like I never played basketball. I ran cross-country…. I went for distance running instead of sprints.” He felt he had to show his White classmates that there were “exceptions to all these stereo- types.” However, this strategy was oflimited usefulness.When he trav-

eled outside his home community with his White teammates, he sometimes encountered overt racism. “I quickly realized that I’m

64 Understanding Blackness in a White Conlexl

Black, and that’s the thing that they’re going to see first, no matter how much I try to de-emphasize my Blackness.”

A Black student can play down Black identity in order to succeed in school and mainstream institutions without rejecting his BI~ck identity and culture. ‘S Instead of becoming raceless, an achieving Black student can become an emissary, someone who sees his or her own achievements as advancing the cause of the racial group. For example, social scientists Richard Zweigenhaft and G. William Domhoff describe how a successful Black student, in response to the accusation of acting White, connected his achievement to that of other Black men by saying, “Martin Luther King IT..ust not have been Black, then, since he had a doctoral degree, and Malcolm X must not have been Black since he educated himself while in prison.” In addi- tion, he demonstrated his loyalty to the Black community by taking an openly political stance against the racial discrimination he observed in his school. 16

It is clear that an oppositional identity can interfere with acade- mic achievement, and it may be tempting for educators to blame the adolescents themselves for their academic decline. However, the ques- tions that educators and other concerned adults must ask are, How

did academic achievement become defined as exclusively White behavior? What is it about the curriculum and the wider culture that reinforces the notion that academic excellence is an exclusivelyWhite domain? What curricular interventions might we use to encourage the development ofan empowered emissary identity?

An oppositional identity that disdains academic achievement has

not always been a characteristic of Black adolescent peer groups. It seems to be a post-desegregation phenomenon. Historically, the oppositional identity found among African Americans in the segre- gated South included a positive attitude toward education. While Black people may have publicly deferred to Whites, they actively encouraged their children to pursue education as a ticket to greater freedom.” While Black parents still see education as the key to upward mobility, in today’s desegregated schools the models of suc-

Identity Development in Adolescence 65

cess-the teachers, administrators, and curricular heroes-are almost

always White. Black Southern schools, though stigmatized by legally sanctioned

segregation, were often staffed by African American educators, them- selves visible models of academic achievement. These Black educators

may have presented a curriculum that included references to the intellectuallegaey of other African Americans. As well, in the context

ofa segregated school, it was a given that the high achieving students would all be Black.Academic achievement did not have to mean sep- aration from one’s Black peers.

The Search for Alternative Images

This historical example reminds us that an oppositional identity dis- couraging academic achievement is not inevitable even in a racist society. If young people are exposed to images ofMrican American academic achievement in their early years, they won’t have to define

school achievement as something for Whites only. They will know

that there is a long history ofBlack intellectual achievement. This point was made quite eloquently by Jon, the young man I

quoted earlier. Though he made the choice to excel in school, he labored under the false assumption that he was “inventing the wheel.”

It wasn’t until he reached college and had the opportunity to take African American studies courses that he learned about other African

Americans besides Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Frederick

Douglass-the same three men he had heard about year after year, from kindergarten to high school graduation. As he reflected on his identity struggle in high school, he said:

It’s like I went through three phases…. My first phase

was being cool, doing whatever was particularly cool

for Black people at the time, and that was like in junior high. Then in high school, you· know, I thought being Black was basically all stereotypes, so I tried to avoid all

66 Understanding Blackness in a White Context

of those things. Now in college, you know, I realize that being Black means a variety of things.

Learning his history in college was ofgreat psychological impor- tance to Jon, providing him with role models he had been missing in high school. He was particularly inspired by learning of the intellec- tual legacy ofBlack men at his own college:

When you look at those guys who were here in the Twenties, they couldn’t live on campus. They couldn’t eat on campus. They couldn’t get their hair cu.t in town.

And yet they were all Phi Beta Kappa…. That’s what being Black really is, you know, knowing who you are, your history, your accomplishments….When I was in

junior high, I had White role models. And then when I got into high school, you know, I wasn’t sure but I just didn’t think having White role models was a good thing. So I got rid of those. And I basically just, you know, only had my parents for role models. I kind of

grew up thinking that we were on the cutting edge.We were doing something radically different than every- body else. And not realizing that there are all kinds of Black people doing the very things that I thought we

were the only ones doing….You’ve got to do the very best you can so that you can continue the great tradi- tions that have already been established.

This young man was not alone in his frustration over having learned little about his own cultural history in grade school.Time and

again in the research interviews I conducted, Black students lamented the absence of courses in African American history or liter-

ature at the high school level and indicated how significant this new learning was to them in college, how excited and affirmed they felt by this newfound knowledge. Sadly, many Black students never get to

Identity Development in Adolescence 67

college, alienated from the ptocess of education long before high school graduation. They may never get access to the information that

might have helped them expand their definition ofwhat it means to be Black and, in the ptocess, might have helped them stay in school. Young people are developmentally ready for this information in ado-

lescence. We ought to provide it.

NDt at the Table

As we have seen, Jon felt he had to distance himself from his Black peers in order to be successful in high school. He was one of the kids not sitting at the Black_table. Continued encounters with racism and access to new culturally relevant information empowered him to give

up his racelessness and become an emissary. In college, not only did

he sit at the Black table, but he emerged as a campus leader, confident in the support of his Black peers. His example illustrates that one’s presence at the Black table is often an expression of one’s identity development, which evolves over time.

Some Black students may not be developmentally ready for the Black table injunior or senior high school.They may not yet have had their own encounters with racism, and race may not be very salient for them.Just as we don’t all reach puberty and begin developing sex- ual interest at the same time, racial identity development unfolds in

idiosyncratic ways. Though my research suggests that adolescence is a common time, one’s own life experiences are also important deter-

minants ofthe”timing.The young person whose racial identity devel-

opment is out of synch with his or her peers often feels in an awk-

ward position. Adolescents are notoriously egocentric and assume that their experience is the same as everyone else’s. Just as girls who have

become interested in boys become disdainful of their friends still interested in dolls, the Black teens who are at the table can be quite judgmental toward those who are not. “If! think it is a sign ofauthen-

tic Blackness to sit at this table, then you should too.” The young Black men and women who still hang around with

68 Understanding Blackness in a White Context

the White classmates they may have known since early childhood will often be snubbed by their Black peers. This dynamic is particularly apparent in regional schools where children from a variety of neigh-

borhoods are brought together. When Black children from predomi- nandy White neighborhoods go to school with Black children from predominandy Black neighborhoods, the former group is often viewed as trying to be White by the latter group.We all speak the lan- guage of the streets we live on. Black children living in White neigh- borhoods often sound White to their Black peers from across town, and may be teased because of it. This can be a very painful experi- ence, particularly when the young person is not fully accepted as part of the White peer group either.

One young Black woman from a predominandy White commu- nity described exactly this situation in an interview. In a school with a lot of racial tension, Terri felt that “the worst thing that happened” was the rejection she experienced from the other Black children who were being bussed to her school. Though she wanted to be friends with them, they teased her, calling her an “orea cookie” and some-

times beating her up.The only close Black friend Terri had was a bira- cial girl from her neighborhood.

Racial tensions also affected her relationships with White stu- dents. One White friend’s parents commented, “I can’t believe you’re

Black.You don’t seem like all the Black children.You’re nice.”Though other parents made similar comments, Terri reported that her White friends didn’t start making them until junior high school, whenTerri’s Blackness became something to be explained. One friend introduced Terri to another White girl by saying, “She’s not really Black, she just went to Florida and got a really dark tan.” A White sixth-grade “boyfriend” became embarrassed when his friends discovered he had a crush on a Black girl. He stopped telling Terri how pretty she was, and instead called her “nigger” and said, “Your lips are too big. I don’t want to see you. I won’t he your friend anymore.”

Despite supportive parents who expressed concern about her sit-

uation, Terri said she was a “very depressed child.” Her father would

Identity Development in Adolescence 69

have conversations with her “about being Black and beautiful” and about “the union of people of color that had always existed that I needed to find. And the pride.” However, her parents did not have a network ofBlack friends to help support her.

It was the intetvention ofa Black juniot high school teacher that Terri feels helped her the most. Mrs. Campbell “really exposed me to the good Black community because I was so down on it” by getting Terri involved in singing gospel music and introducing her to other Black students who would accept her. “That’s when I started having other Black friends. And I thank her a lot for that.”

The significant role that Mrs. Campbell played in helping Terri open up illustrates the constructive potential that informed adults can have in the identity development process. She recognized Terri’s need for a same-race peer group and helped her find one.Talking to groups

of Black students about the variety of living situations Black people come from and the unique situation facing Black adolescents in White communities helps to expand the definition of what it means to be Black and increases intragroup acceptance at a time when that

is quite important. For children in Terri’s situation, it is also helpful for Black parents

to provide ongoing opportunities for their children to connect with other Black peers even if that means traveling outside the commu- nity they live in. Race-conscious parents often do this by attending a Black church or maintaining ties to Black social organizations such as Jack and Jill. Parents who make this effort often find that their chil- dren become bicultural, able to move comfortably between Black and White communities, and able to sit at the Black table when they are

ready. Implied in this discussion is the assumption that connecting with

one’s Black peers in the process of identity development is important and should be encouraged. For young Black people living in pre- dominantly Black communities, such connections occur sponta- neously with neighbors and classmates and usually do not require spe-

cial encouragement. However, for young people in predominantly

70 Understanding Blackness in a White Context

White communities they may only occur with active parental inter- vention. One might wonder if this social connection is really neces- sary. If a young person has found a niche among a circle ofWhite friends, is it really necessary to establish a Black peer group as a refer- ence point? Eventually it is.

As one’s awareness of the daily challenges ofliving in a racist soci- ety increase, it is immensely helpful to be able to share one’s experi-

ences with others who have lived it. Even when White friends are

willing and able to listen and bear witness to one’s struggles, they can- not really share the experience. One young woman came to this real-

ization in her senior year of high school:

[The isolation] never really bothered me until about senior year when I was the only one in the class…. That little burden, that constant burden of you always having to strive to do your best and show that you can

do just as much as everybody else. Your White friends can’t understand that, and it’s really hard to communi-

cate to them. Only someone else of the same racial, same ethnic background would understand something like that.

When one is faced with what Chester Pierce calls the “mundane extreme environmental stress” of racism, in adolescence or in adult-

hood, the ability to see oneself as part of a larger group from which one can draw support is an important coping strategy. IS Individuals

who do not have such a strategy available to them because they do not experience a shared identity with at least some subset of their

racial group are at risk for considerable social isolation.

Of course. who we perceive as sharing our identity may be influ- enced by other dimensions of identity such as gender, social class,

geographical location, skin color. or ethnicity. For example, research

indicates that first-generation Black immigrants from the Caribbean tend to emphasize their national origins and ethnic identities, dis-

Identity Development in Adolescence 71

tancing themselves from u.s. Blacks, due in part to their belief that West Indians are viewed more positively by Whites than those American Blacks whose family roots include the experience of u.s. slavery. To relinquish one’s ethnic identity as West Indian and take on an Mrican American identity may be understood as downward so~ial

mobility. However, second-generation West Indians without an iden-

tifiable accent may lose the relative ethnic privilege their parents experienced and seek racial solidarity with Black American peers in

the face of encounters with racism. 19 Whether it is the experience of being followed in stores because they are suspected ofshoplifting, see- ing people respond to them with fear on the street, or feeling over- looked in school, Black youth can benefit from seeking support from

those who have had similar experiences.

An Alternative to the Cafeteria Table

The developmental need to explore the meaning of one’s identity with others who are engaged in a similar process manifests itself informally in school corridors and cafeterias across the country. Some

educational institutions have sought to meet this need progranunati-

cally. Several colleagues and I recently evaluated one such effort, ini- tiated at a Massachusetts middle school participating in a voluntary

desegregation program known as the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) program.'” Historically, the

small number of African American students who are bussed from

Boston to this suburban school have achieved disappointing levels of academic success. In an effort to improve academic achievement, the

school introduced a program, known as Student Efficacy Training

(SET) that allowed Boston students to meet each day as a group with two staff members. Instead of being in physical education or home economics or study hall, they were meeting, talking about homework difficulties, social issues, and encounters with racism. The meeting was

mandatory and at first the students were resentful of missing some of

their classes. But the impact was dramatic. Said one young woman,

72 Understanding Blackness in a White Context

In the beginning of the year, I didn’t want to do SET at all. It took away my study and it was only METCO stu- dents doing it. In the beginning all we did was argue over certain problems or it was more like a rap session and I didn’t think it was helping anyone. But then when we looked at records … I know that last year out of all the students, sixth through eighth grade, there was, like, six who were actually good students. Everyone else, it was just pathetic, I mean, like, they were getting like Ds

and Fs….The eighth grade is doing much better this year. I mean, they went from Ds and Fs to Bs and Cs and occasional As…. And those seventh-graders are doing really good, they have a lot of honor roll students

in seventh grade, both guys and girls. Yeah,· it’s been good. It’s really good.

Her report is borne out by an examination of school records.The opportunity to come together in the company of supportive adults allowed these young Black students to talk about the issues that hin- dered their performance-racial encounters, feelings of isolation, test

anxiety, homework dilemmas-in the psychological safety of their own group. In the process, the peer culture changed to one that sup- ported academic performance rather than undermined it, as revealed

in these two students’ comments:

Well, a lot of the Boston students, the boys and the girls, used to fight all the time. And now, they stopped yelling

at each other so much and calling each other stupid.

It’s like we’ve all become like one big family, we share things more with each other. We tease each other like brother and sister. We look out for each other with homework and stuff. We always stay on top of each other’cause we know it’s hard with African American

Identity Development in Adolescence 73

students to go to a predominantly White school and try

to succeed with everybody else.

The faculty, too, were very enthusiastic about the outcomes of the

intervention, as seen in the comments of these two classroom teachers:

This ptogram has probably produced the most dra-

matic result of any single change that I’ve seen at this school. It has produced immediate results that affected behavior and academics and participation in school life.

My students are more engaged. They aren’t battling out

a lot of the issues of their anger about being in aWhite

community, coming in from Boston, where do I fit, I don’t belong here. I feel that those issues that often

came out in class aren’t coming out in class anymore. I think they are being discussed in the SET room, the

kids feel more confidence. The kids’ grades are higher,

the homework response is greater, they’re not afraid to

participate in class, and I don’t see them isolating them-

selves within class. They are willing to sit with other

students happily…. I think it’s made a very positive

impact on their place in the school and on their indi- vidual self-esteem. I see them enjoying themselves and

able to enjoy all of us as individuals. I can’t say enough,

it’s been the best thing that’s happened to the METCO

program as far as I’m concerned.21

Although this intervention is not a miracle cure for every school,

it does highlight what can happen when we think about the devel-

opmental needs ofBlack adolescents coming to terms with their own

sense ofidentity. It might seem counterintuitive that a school involved in a voluntary desegregation program could improve both academic

performance and social relationships among students by separating the

74 Understanding Blackness in a White Context

Black students for one period every day. But if we understand the unique challenges facing adolescents of color and the legitimate need they have to feel supported in their identiry development, it makes perfect sense.

Though they may not use the language of racial identity devel- opment theory to describe it, most Black parents want their children

to achieve an internalized sense of personal security, to he able to acknowledge the reality ofracism and to respond effectively to it. Our educational institutions should do what they can to encourage this

development rather than impede it. When I talk to educators about the need to provide adolescents with identity-affirming experiences

and information about their own cultural groups, they sometimes flounder because this information has not been part of their own education. Their understanding of adolescent development has been limited to the White middle-class norms included in most textbooks, their knowledge ofBlack history limited to Martin Luther King,]r., and Rosa Parks. They sometimes say with frustration that parents

should provide this kind of education for their children. Unfortunately Black parents often attended the same schools the teachers did and have the same informational gaps. We need to

acknowledge that an important part of interrupting the cycle of oppression is constant re-education, and sharing what we learn with

the next generation.

248 Notes

18. L. Derman-Sparks and the ABC Task Force, Anti-bias curriculum: 7001s for cmpowcriug young children (Washington, DC: National Association for the

Education of Young Children, 1989).

19. Ibid.,p.77.

Chapler 4 1. J. Marcia, “Development and validation of ego identity status,” jOHntal r1 Personality and Social Psychology 3 (1966): 551-58. 2. For a review of the research on ethnic identity in adolescents, see

J. Phinney, “Ethnic identity in adolescents and adults: Review of research,” Psychological Bulletin 108, no. 3 (1990): 499-514. See also “Part I: Identity development” in B. J. R. Leadbeater and N. Way (Eds.), Urban girls: Resisting stereotypes, creating idclltities (New York: New York University Press, 1996). 3. W. E. Cross, Jr., Shades if Black: Diversity in African-American identity (Philadelphia:Temple University Press, 1991). 4. For an expanded discussion of “race-conscious” parenting, See in B. D.

Tatum, Assimilation blues, ch. 6. 5. J. S. Phinney and S. Tarver, “Ethnic identity search and commitment in Black and White eighth graders,” Journal of Early Adolescence 8, no. 3 (1988): 265-77.

6. See B. D. Tatum, “African-American identity, academic achievement, and missing history,” Social Education 56, no. 6 (1992): 331-34; B. D. Tatum, “Racial identity and relational theory: The case of Black women in White

communities,” in M/ork in progress, no. 63 (Wellesley, MA: Stone Center Working Papers, 1992); B. D. Tatum, “Out there stranded? Black youth in

White communities,” pp. 214-33 in H. McAdoo (Ed.), Blackfamilies, 3d ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996).

7. For an in-depth discussion of the negative effects of tracking in schools, see J. Oakes, Keeping track: How schools structure inequality (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985).

8. For further discussion of the social dynamics for Black youth in White communities, see Tatum, “Out there stranded?”

9. Leadbeater and Way, Urban girls, p.5. 10. A. Haley and Malcolm X, TIle autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Grove Press, 1965), p. 36.

Notes 249

11. S. Fordham and J. Ogbu, “Black student’s school success: Coping with the burden of ‘acting White,'” Urban Review 18 (1986): 176-206.

12. Ibid., p. 181. 13. For an expanded discussion of the “trying to be White” pheno;11enon, see Fordham and Ogbu, “Black students’ school success,” and S. Fordham,

“Racelessness as a factor in Black students’ school success: Pragmatic strat-

egy or Pyrrhic victory?” Harvard Educational Review 58, no. 1(1988): 54-84. 14. Fordham, “Racelessness as a factor in Black students’ school success.” See

also S. Fordham, Blacked out: Dilemmas if race, identity, and success at Capital High (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). 15. For further discussion of this point, see R. Zwcigenhaft and G. W.

Domhoff, Blacks in the VVhite establishment? A study if race and class in America (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1991),p. 155.

16. Ibid. 17. Ibid., p. 156. 18. C. Pierce, “Mundane extreme environment and its effects on learning,” in S. G. Brainard (Ed.), Learning disabilitics: Issucs afld recommendations for research (Washington, DC: National Institute of Education, 1975). 19. See M. C.Waters,”The intersection ofgender, race, and ethnicity in iden-

tity development of Caribbean American teens,” in B. J. R. Leadbeater and N. Way (Eds.), Urbatl girls: Rcsistiflg stereotypes, creating identities (New York: NewYork University Press, 1996).

20. The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) pro- gram was established in 1966 under the state’s Racial Imbalance Law passed by

the Massachusetts General Court in 1965. METCO was established to provide

(1) the opportunity for an integrated public school education for urban Black children and other children of color from racially imbalanced schools in

Boston by placing them in suburban schools, (2) a new learning experience for

suburban children, and (3) a closer understanding and cooperation between

urban and suburban parents and other citizens in the Boston metropolitan area. Thirty-four suburban communities participate in the METCO program.

21. For a more complete description of the program and its evaluation, see

B. D. Tatum, P. C. Brown, P. Elliott, and T. Tatum, “Student efficacy training: An evaluation of one middle school’s programmatic response to the Eastern Massachusetts Initiative” (presented at the American Educational Research

Association Annual Meeting, April 9, 1996, NewYork).