Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

Beverly Daniel Tatum 213
sparked are positive and/or negative, this book evokes thought to at least engage in talk about
race and the situation of racism in America. This kind of “talk” has quelled the overwhelming
silence about race over the years and sanctioned the need for race discourse. It provides on one
hand a social context for race and on the other hand rejects the idea of “racelessness,” which
mechanistic educational psychology has perpetuated for a long time.
Openings originating from race conversations foster change as well as awareness. In conversations,
movement begins to stir beyond talk and, in fact, evolves from discourse moving forward
as an agenda of agency that promotes emancipation from the age-old debilitating conditions of
racism. Some changes also emerge from intrinsic and/or extrinsic origins, thereby representing
dual perspectives of the cafeteria phenomena as well as highlighting powerful hegemonic
groups. Intrinsically, racism is the inner turmoil that stings and sometimes blisters the black
child’s lived world experiences and, as an internalized experience, it has the unfortunate ability
to fester and penetrate the human core. Extrinsically, racism operates from outside of the “self”
and finds reinforcement in schools, communities, and the larger society. Coupling and sorting
out the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects first on an individual level and then from a collective standpoint
can assist in the possibility of constructive change. Tatum starts with dissecting intrinsic
upsets of the black individual, aptly exploring the psychological dynamics, and then continues
to transfer and intermix that information to the language of the educational and social arenas.
Thus, through the intermingling of psychological, educational, historical, and social dynamics,
educational psychology becomes enmeshed in the process.
Tatum draws on intrinsic information from an etymological sensibility, which emerges when
she examines racial identity and unearths the origins of racism as it aligns with the development
of identity. Although the point of origin is “self,” the end result always encompasses the whole.
In actuality, the nuclear “self” simply mushrooms into intricate connections of life like an
amazing geometric diagram developing slowly but surely, all pieces fitting together and forming
a complete circle of humanity rolling along as every one affects the other. In Why Are All
the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race, she
refers to the psychologist William Cross to clarify the theory of racial identity that involves five
stages: preencounter, encounter, immersion, internalization, and internalization/commitment. In
a nutshell, Cross discusses how a person from a racial minority begins life by thinking he or she
is like everyone else, then an awareness sets in that he or she is different, next this awareness
seems to surround the individual from various points of the lived world, and with a gradual
overstimulation of the senses, the individual begins to internalize the “what is.” Finally, in many
cases, the individual accepts the “what is,” which eventually becomes his or her reality. The
critical postformal reconceptualization of educational psychology, in accordance with Tatum’s
works on race and racism, call for rigorous engagement with the psychological origin of “self”
as well as exploration of group dynamics and its relation to the “self.”
Group dynamics and the relationship of “self” join together to create the cafeteria phenomenon.
Why should it be an issue of concern that black kids are sitting together in the cafeteria, whereas,
on the contrary, the idea of white kids sitting together in the cafeteria is not an issue? Regrettably,
black kids sitting together and eating in a specific space usually solicits a shock-wave response to
what should otherwise be considered a normal everyday social event. When a group of same-race
black kids sits together, it often elicits a reaction that prompts questions and, at times, creates in
the public mind the formation of a threatening environment. In fact, cause for concern usually
ignites when any minorities gather together in one specific location.
Under these extenuating circumstances when everyday activities of a specific group of people
are questioned and/or frowned upon, one might be inclined to pose a poignant question such
as, “How does democratic practice apply in this situation?” In sum, the same-race grouping
phenomenon can either be seen as a positive action, whereby it can be interpreted as kids simply