Time will tell the long-term effects of reading this book, but it very much motivated me to think about teaching since Tatum has an educational bent and there are a lot of things to be fixed in education. (However, this may not be the best career path for my personality, but I’m not done growing up yet!)

This book, in collusion with numerous other events that have recently occurred, put race in my mind and gave me the resolve to deconstruct it with my white peers. Today I questioned a friend of mine in a hypothetical “If you saw racial discrimination in the workplace, what would you do?” He considers himself liberal and from a self-described “lily-white” background (as am I). He told me he’s not sure he would put himself outside his comfort zone with race, which is (as Tatum points out) exactly what white priviledge is. He has a choice not to address it. And so, on this one issue for today, I questioned him. I know I made him extremely uncomfortable. But I think I can perhaps show him how race does apply to his life and how he can avoid his own racism. It will take time, but if I can help this one person do this, it will be worth it. And without reading this book, I doubt the idea would have occurred to me at this point in my life.