The "Black Table" is Still There (Cause and effect essay)

 

The "Black Table" is Still There

(Cause and effect essay)

 

Introduction

The “Black Table” Is Still There by Lawrence Otis Graham is an interesting passage. The author who is a lawyer is an African-American, who was lucky to have been born in Westchester County in New York where the upper-middle-class people lived. Hence, he presents his experience as a black in an integrated school. Through him, one is able to understand the segregation of people and some of the reasons why color differences continue to be a primary factor on why people segregate (isolate) themselves.

 

According to the article, racial segregation is a creation of the blacks and other minority people since they separate themselves from the whites even when the government has made efforts to end the iniquity. However, people will always segregate themselves regardless of the efforts made to end the social issue.

 

To start with, Graham commences his narrative by visiting his junior school at Westchester County.  He is surprised that after 27 years, the black lunch table at the school cafeteria is still there, at the same spot and carrying the same number.  This is a long period for a cafeteria to remain the same.  It is clear that students are still immovable on segregating themselves. Do the black children drive segregation? Through a series of rhetorical questions, Graham (349) tries to help us to find solutions for the issue of segregation. Why should the black children separate themselves from the whites? Did the black table have effects on the efforts put forward for integration?

The rhetorical questions help one to look at the issue from another angle. One is even persuaded to believe in Graham’s reasons for not sitting at the black table.  The author sells himself as the tool for integration. Graham says that he was “the first and only black person integrating such activities and institutions as the college newspaper, high school tennis team” (348). However, he does not count himself, as hero since his main reason for not sitting at the black table when he was 12 years old, was to avoid losing friendship with the white kids.  He convinces himself that if the black kids would stop sitting at the segregated table and blend in with the whites, segregation would cease (Graham 349).

Graham’s way of looking at the causes of segregation is not far from the truth but then it does not account for the situation at the school. Through him, we find out that apart from the black table there were other tables including the Italian table, Jewish girls table and tables of students who were involved in different sports. From this list, it is clear that segregation went beyond racial divides but also in sports as well (Graham 349).   This brings us to the issue of self-segregation. Human are social beings and they will segregate themselves into an array of classes, which suit them best.

Graham writes, “I was ready to believe that their self segregation was the cause of white bigotry (349). Is he justified to paint black kids as the cause of segregation? No, he is not. He is reluctant into believing in anything else. Graham fails to look at the other side of the story. Could the white kids and the community in extension also be the cause for the vice? At one point, he is determined to go to bar mitzvah and his white friend told him that he would make the whites uncomfortable.  At another incident, his mere presence at a local country club at age ten terrifies parents.  This revelation makes him to change his mind about the black lunch table (Graham 349).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is clear that people will always segregate themselves among different social clusters, amid the efforts that have been put forward to end segregation. Graham himself confirms that the existence of other segregated tables only shows how integration initiatives have affected the society. He is no longer bothered by the presence of the black lunch table.