“What Tatum seeks to do above all is trigger sometimes challenging discussions about race, and infuse those discussions with a reality-based focus on how race affects us all. Her latest book does that beautifully, asking touch questions, and patiently, inclusively seeking answers.”Read Full Review

"Ten years ago, Tatum’s book asked the question, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Her latest book follows up with a broader question about the nation’s readiness to talk honestly about the forces that continue to make race such a thorny issue. In separate essays, Tatum probes the impact of continued segregation in public schools—mostly the result of segregated neighborhoods—on classroom achievement; the difficulty of developing and sustaining interracial relationships in a society that practices silence on race; and the longer-term implications of continued segregation on a changing democracy with a growing nonwhite population. Tatum blends policy analysis and personal recollections as an educator and self-described “integration baby,” born just after the momentous Brown v. Board of Education decision, into a cogent look at the forces that continue to separate the races and the urgent need to begin an honest dialogue. Tatum’s analysis is a probing and ambitious start of a series of books to prod national discussion on issues of race, education, and democracy."