Clustering in Our Own Groups

A few weeks ago I went to the WSU Office of Multicultural Student Services for a work meeting. They have several student centers located adjacent to each other near the top of the Student Union Building. These centers provide comfortable places for students to socialize, do homework, and make use of mentors and academic support services. So with this in mind, I have picked up one of my wife's new books with more interest than usual. It's "Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? and other conversations about race. Its a national bestseller written by Beverly Daniel Tatum. I'm interested to see what she says, particularly about promoting unity, if she does. So far it feels a little more academic than she intended. I'll probably read more on my way to another meeting next week. The question on the back of the book: is this self-segregation a problem we should try to fix, or a coping strategy we should support. The book was published about 11 years ago. My first few sentences might be foreshadowing of the books answer to this last questions. We'll see.