a tale of o

"...what happens to the o, the token, in a world of xs. in corporate america, Black people are still in the o position. one consequence of being an o,... is heightened visibility. when an o walks in the room, the xs notice. whatever the o does, positive or negative, stands out because of the increased visibility. it is hard for an o to blend in. when several os are together, the attention of the xs is really captured. without the tokens present in the room, the xs go about their business, perhaps not even noticing that they are all xs. but when the o walks in, the xs are suddenly self-conscious about their x-ness. in the context of race relations, when the Black people are sitting together, the white people notice and become self-conscious about being white in a way that they were not before... what does it say about the white people if the Black people are sitting together? the white person wonders, 'am i being excluded? are they talking about us?"

*excerpted from "why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?" by beverly daniel tatum, ph.d., pg.89