“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D.

(1.) […] In almost every audience I address, there is someone who will suggest that racism is a thing of the past. There is always someone who hasn’t noticed the stereotypical images of people of color in the media, who hasn’t observed the housing discrimination in their community, who hasn’t read the newspaper articles about racial bias in lending practices[1] among well-known banks, who isn’t aware of the racial tracking[2] pattern at the local school, who hasn’t seen the reports of rising incidents of racially motivated hate crimes in America—in short, someone who hasn’t been paying attention to issues of race. But if you are paying attention, the legacy of racism is not hard to see, and we are all affected by it.

The stereotypical images, housing discrimination, racial bias in lending practices, racial tracking pattern, and racially motivated hate crimes are examples that the author gives on racism now. Racial bias in lending practices means that banks and other companies that give out loans give out loans based on racial discrimination. Examples of stereotypical images of people of color in the media are given in paragraph 4.

This paragraph is significant because it sets the book up on what it's going to be about. It identifies the main concept of the book, as well as give some subtle hints to what it the author plans on going into detail with. He also relates to the reader saying that everyone is affected by racism in one way or another.