Racism In The Cafeteria

In the United States, the problem of equality has never been more prevalent. Equality between race, age group and gender are some of the most common. One that really catches a lot of attention is race. The problem of race started when people from Africa were slave in the United States. Once President Abraham Lincoln free the slaves, the hatred towards the now free African Americans grew premensdly. This lead to segregation, and eventually the civil rights movement. The book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum, discuss many topics regarding racism in the United States currently. One of the most interesting topics was the concept that racist is completely different from prejudice.
Tatum

define racism as a “system of advantages based on race” (Tatum 7). Which would be very different from prejudice since its the concept of having certain assumptions about a race base of your own personal views. This completely changes the field of play when it comes to talking about racism. When considering racism, the general assumption is being unfair to a certain race or judging them based solely by their skin color. This would be the incorrect way to view racism because this is almost the exact definition of prejudice. It also allows, for a much broader look on racism. When considering racism, as a system of advantages two things occur, one it implies that there is a race being benefited by the system and one being misrepresented by the system.
There are many ways in which prejudice alone can harm a society, one being the complete ignorance of a culture. This creates a world in which a group of people are automatically label as bad or good just because of the prejudice that we have. One common one, all black males steal from stores. This kind of prejudice is harmful because it automatically make us be on the lock out for anyone that looks a certain way. For example, with the wide spread of cellular technology, more and more videos of store managers following black teens around the store have surface. Prejudice is harmful because it widened the gap between the two races. After all, why should one trust another that do not trust them back.
The definition given to us by Tatum of racism is pretty important when viewing society today.

A system in which one race (whites) are benefit and anyone of color are on a disadvantage. Tatum go into many examples in the book, such as “if a person of color is the victim of housing discrimination, the apartment that would otherwise have been rented to that person of color is still available for a White person” (Tatum 9). This kind of discrimination or system of advantage based on race are very harmful to the society. One because it lowers the moral of the race been discriminated but also misleads the race been benefited. The way on which the race that is discriminated is demoralized is that if the whole world is against you then why try. This type of mentally is visible from an early age, the classic saying “The white man is keeping me down” can yes be use as a way to describe the effect of discrimination but also as a way to justify the lack of motivation in the individual. This leads to a society in which less and less people are fighting to change the system and thus allowing it to continue. It also makes the gap between both races even larger.
The problem of racism will continue to be a major problem in the United States for years to come. The most important part for solving a problem is realizing that there is a problem. As more and more people speak out of the matter the more awareness it will have and thus causing

chance.