The purpose of this investigation was to explore doctoral students' experiences engaging in conversations about the role of race and racism in education during their programs. We conducted focus groups with graduate students in a School of Education at a predominantly White institution in the South. Our findings support the notion that creating space for doctoral students to engage in "race talk" (Pollock, M., 2004, "Colormute: Race talk dilemmas in an American high school." Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) during their courses is essential for developing "racial literacy," or the ability to critically analyze racial/racist ideologies, norms, and patterns embedded in educational policies and practices. We assert that our participants' varied experiences engaging in race talk (i.e., the relative presence of conversations in certain programs and their limited presence in others) may stem from a variety of factors including disciplinary cultures and faculty values and expectations, as well as professional standards advanced by accrediting bodies and organizations. In light of our findings, we conclude that critical conversations about race should be intentionally integrated into doctoral coursework in education. We suggest that colleges/schools of education should increase their efforts to produce racially literate professionals capable of problematizing the constructions of race and racist practices in educational settings. (Contains 1 table and 10 footnotes.)