In the article, “Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together?

”, the author Beverly Tatum

describes how young African American students develop and identity how their race impacts
their perspective and how they interact with others in school. She first writes about how young
African American elementary kids are open and friendly with all races and genders and how they
don’t see color when interacting with other kids. “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”, and the reason for that is
simply because at a young age children of all races are unaware of the differences between
different races. When I was in elementary school, I interacted with all my peers that were of all
races and I never saw them as different, I just saw them as kids just like me. But as I grew older
and I learned more about race, gender and ethnicity and I then quickly saw how different and
unique we truly are. Tatum then describes how African American kids in middle school start to
realize the different racial groups and tend to hang out with the other African Americans in their
schools. Once I entered middle school it was evident to see the different racial groups that hung
out together. You had the black kids, Hispanic kids, Asian kids and white kids that grouped with
each other separately just because they felt comfortable associating with people that looked just
like them. “One thing that happens is puberty. As children enter adolescence, they begin to
explore the question of identity” and they are at a stage in their life where they are exploring who
they are. Tatum then writes about how African Americans in Highschool begin to feel
comfortable and proud of their color and their racial background. Now that I am in college, I can
be both proud of my race while respecting other people's races as well.