In Chapter 1, Tatum draws a distinction between active and passive racism. While the former consists of “blatant, intentional acts of racial bigotry and discrimination” (91), the latter consists of more subtle acts, such as laughing at a racist joke or staying silent about exclusionary policies or practices. Although one is more obvious than the other, they both support the maintenance of racism.

Affirmative action programs are one of the main focuses of Chapter 7. Public universities and employers with federal contracts are required to “develop procedures that […] result in equal employment opportunity for historically disadvantaged groups” (215), including people of color, women, people with disabilities, and veterans. Some institutions develop process-oriented affirmative action programs, which attempt to create an unbiased application process. Tatum argues that these are often not effective because people make biased decisions even when they don’t intend to. Goal-oriented programs, on the other hand, set diversity goals and continually evaluate whether they are making progress toward those goals.

Psychologists Samuel Gaertner and John Dovidio claim that many White Americans are “aversive racists”, which is a result of them “internaliz[ing] the espoused cultural values of fairness and justice for all at the same time that they have been breathing the smog of racial biases and stereotypes pervading popular culture” (220).