Sara’s Reviews > Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? > Status Update

"It has been said that to teach is to touch the future. Helping students to see the past more clearly, to understand and communicate with others more fully in the present, and to imagine the future more justly is to transform the wold."

"but the US model emphasizes transformation rather than reconciliation, because the root cause of racial hierarchy is no the result of conflict between groups; rather, it is built into the foundational governance structures of the nation."

"Parker Palmer offers this wisdom about doing the 'right thing': 'Right action requires only that we respond faithfully to our own inner truth and to the truth around us... If an action is rightly taken, taken with integrity, its outcomes will achieve whatever is possible - which is the best that anyone can do.'"

"Few of us have been taught to think critically about issues of social injustice. We have been taught not to notice or to accept our present situation as give, 'the way it is'."

"I have heard many people say, 'But I don't know enough! I don't even recognize most of those names. I don't have enough of the facts to be able to speak up about racism or anything else!' They are not alone. We have all been miseducated in this regard. Educating ourselves and others is an essential step in the process of change."

"She had fears, but who would tell her story if she didn't? For many people of color, learning to break the silence is a survival issue. To remain silent would be to disconnect from her own experience, to swallow and internalize her own oppression. The cost of silence is too high."

"Because of White culture silence about racism, my White students often had little experience engaging in dialogue about racial issues. They had not much practice at overcoming their inhibitions to speak."

“Cultural identities are not solely determined in response to racial ideologies, but racism increases the need for a positive self- identity in order to survive psychologically.”

"While the traditional arts and crafts were worthy of study, the curriculum embodied a "museum" perspective whereby the traditional life of Alaska Natives were studied as "an interesting curiosity commemorating the past." Ongtooguk explained, "The most disturbing picture of Inupiaq culture, then, was of its static nature - something that had happened 'back then' rather than something that was happening now."

"The task for each of us, White and of color, is to identify what our own sphere of influence is (however large or small) and to consider how it might be used to interrupt the cycle of racism."