Can We Talk About Race? A Conversation between Beverly Daniel Tatum and Baroness Valerie Amos

Join us for this conversation between Beverly Daniel Tatum and Baroness Valerie Amos about Dr Tatum's book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, a perennial bestseller on the psychology of racism, which has been published in the UK for the first time this year.

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Walk into any racially mixed secondary school and you will see young people clustered in their own groups according to race. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum guides us through how racial identity develops, from very young children all the way to adulthood, in black families, white families, and mixed race families, and helps us understand what we can do to break the silence, have better conversations with our children and with each other about race, and build a better world. A mainstay on the bookshelves of American readers since 1998, and substantially revised and updated in 2017, this evergreen bestseller is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the dynamics of race.

Beverly Daniel Tatum, President Emerita of Spelman College, is the author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations about Race, now in its 20th anniversary edition. A thought-leader in higher education, she was the 2013 recipient of the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award and the 2014 recipient of the American Psychological Association Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology. Dr Tatum holds a BA degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, a MA and PhD in clinical psychology from University of Michigan, and a MA in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary.

Baroness Valerie Amos is the Master of University College Oxford. She was appointed a Labour life peer in 1997 and served in the British Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development and Leader of the House of Lords (2003-2007). She has consistently sustained an interest in, and commitment to, issues of equality and social justice. Baroness Amos’ career has spanned local and national government in the UK as well as global leadership in her role as Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations. Baroness Amos also served as UK High Commissioner to Australia and between 1994 and 1998 worked extensively in South Africa. Her work in the voluntary and charity sector and in non-governmental organisations has gone hand in hand with her policy and political work.