In his essay, Robert Jensen claims that Caucasian Americans feel that in order to be considered a true "American," your skin must be white in color. He uses hurricane Katrina as an example, saying that, "...one of the hurricane's most enduring legacies is the way it made visible the effect of racial and class disparities on who lived and who died... (Jensen, par. 1)." According to what was shown on television, it would appear as though the black community garnered the bulk of the destruction, but when investigated closely, such an assumption would be proven to be absurd. Of course, racism has not been entirely eradicated from the American society, and no one racial group can honestly plead complete innocence to displaying racist behavior at one time or another. Singling out an entire group of people in a racism accusation is ridiculous, to say the least. There is a considerable lack of documented support for his claim; the basis of his argument is a matter of opinion or point of view on the situation. The way people perceive each other is dependent on the individual, so accrediting a racial population in its entirety with a very broad accusation of racist behavior is certainly unfair. Sure, there are certainly racist white Americans living in the United States as of to date, just as Jensen suggests, but the mass of the white population in our country has no personal gripe with another race, illustrating that the author's claim is inaccurate.
Jensen's first point was to cite that President Bush is racist against black people because of FEMA's poor response to the tragedy caused by hurricane Katrina, which is illogical. First of all, the President only appoints the head of FEMA; Bush's involvement in the actual recover...
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...very and segregation, but unfortunately some people still insist that the country's leaders are white biased, even though there are varying racial backgrounds amongst government officials all the way up into the White House. A perfect example of such hypocrites is the author of the essay under analysis. Robert Jensen's agenda seems to be more of a political attack on a certain Republican official's in the White House, rather than an actual concern for the well being of the American people. Such a concern would applaud the collaboration between the mixed races that make up the New America.
WORKS CITED
Jensen, Robert. "The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege." UCF Common Reader (2006): 15-16.
Realities of Reverse Racism. Home Page. CBS News. 31 Jan. 2006
< http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/02/eveningnews/main520514.shtml>.
Lipsitz, George. “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: Racialized Social Democracy and the “White” Problem in American Studies.” 47 vols. No. 3 San Diego: University of California, American Quarterly, American Studies Association. Vol. 47, No. 3, p. 373, 374, 376, 381, 384.
Many people in the United States society believe that people of all cultures, races, and ethnicities are now on an even playing field. People with this belief support their logic with the argument that since equal rights for people of color and women have been required by law for some time now, we are all inherently as equal as claimed in the Declaration of Independence. Many believe that race is no longer an issue, a viewpoint frequently referred to as color-blindness. National polling data indicated that a majority of whites now believe discrimination against racial minorities no longer exists. (Gallagher, 96) Color-blindness allows a white person to define himself or herself as politically and racially tolerant and then proclaim their adherence to a belief system that does not see or judge individuals by the “color of their skin.” (Gallagher, 98) Many Caucasians in particular are of the opinion that because they listen to hip-hop or cheer for their favorite black, professional sports player that they are not racist. Still others believe that because they have a black president, we see black people in the commercial of products we consume, or enjoy television shows with black people that they are actually acknowledging race. In order to examine and dismantle this series of misconceptions, we will turn to the work of various scholars of social justice and privilege, including Peggy McIntosh, Patricia Hinchey and Johnathon Kozol as well as the story of Patricia J Williams. Through a careful examination of these works with the support of some key statistics, it is the goal of this paper to demonstrate the existence of a privileged and unprivileged America, despite the color-blindness many may profess to have integrated into their p...
I live in white world bubble. I live in a small rural town; I only know of two African American children that live in my small rural town. The only reason why they live in this small rural white community is because of adoption. I work in another small rural white community town and there are zero African American children attending that school. Nevertheless, just twenty minutes away from both small white community towns there is a diverse population. After reading the articles and watching the TED talk, I came to the conclusion that I purposely have created my own white world bubble. In this paper, I will be reflecting on Verna Myers TED talk on, “How to overcome our biases?” Through Verna’s video, I discovered why I have created this white
Adelmann, Larry. "Racial Preferences for Whites: The Houses that Racism Built." PBS.org. Public Broadcasting Service, 29 June 2003. Web. 4 May 2014.
In America, the white purity race became the wealthiest and prominent group. Whiteness proved to grow in the society through cultural ideas, public authority, and cultural norms. Leaving minorities not able to partake fully in the culture. Recently scholars have begun looking into the cultural formations of white racial identity under the framework of whiteness studies (Zack, 2006).
Whiteness theory describes what it means to be of the Caucasian race in the United States (Rodriguez 1999:20). The details of what it means to be “white” in American society raises awareness to social construction of whiteness. Political whiteness attempts to displace the normativity of the white position by seeing it as a strategy of authority rather than an authentic or essential ‘identity’ “(Bhabha 1998:21).
Black people are paid almost half of what white people are paid, which forces them to live in low income communities which tend to be unsafe, and also put their whole family in danger. Due to their low income, they might not be able to afford health care which causes them to “lose more work because of illness, have more carious teeth, lose more babies as a result of both miscarriage and infant death…” according to William Ryan from Blaming the Victim page 648. People who have low income due to the wage gap tend not to be able to afford college compared to white people, which hinders their future and their ability to succeed. In fact, on page 214 in Shades of Belonging: Latinos and Racial Identity, Sonia Tafoya states “Hispanics who identified themselves as white have higher levels of education and income and greater degrees of civic enfranchisement than those who pick some other race category.” This shows how minorities are mistreated in society unlike white people. In the end, it doesn’t matter what your abilities are because if you are not white you are not treated equally. “If you’re not white, you’re black,” (141 Sethi). Anyone who is not white in the United States are seen as inferior. If you’re not white, you 're not treated as an equal. Non-whites are judged based on their appearance and are made fun of due to their accents. Numerous non-whites are harassed and are told “you are in America, learn how to speak English!” When in fact, there is no official language of the United States. According to Sonia Shah in Asian American? on page 217, Asians are paid less in the workforce even when they have the same level of education as whites. Regardless of whether non-whites receive the same education level as whites, they are still not equal, not even in the work
While browsing through articles on the internet, I came across many related to the topic of racism. I am beginning to feel as if I am surrounded by stories of racism. From the KKK’s aggressive campaign against immigrants, to the police violence against black people in cites throughout our nation, racism and discrimination continue to be problems. One story stood out to me and continues to make me uncomfortable. Malachi Wilson, a five year-old boy, could not attend his first day of kindergarten in Seminole, Texas. What could he have done to warrant the principal’s rejection? His hair was simply too long.
Racism (n): the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other race (Wordnet search, 1), a controversial topic in today’s society, a subject that many people try to sweep under the rug, but yet a detrimental problem that has been present in America since the colonial era. Will this dilemma come to a halt? Can all Americans see each other as equals despite their skin color and nationality; and what role has it played in past generations versus today’s generations and how will it affect our future? Has this on going way of thinking gotten better or worse? These are questions raised when many think about the subject; especially members of American ethnic groups and backgrounds, because most have dealt with racial discrimination in their life time.
“…Everybody jumped on him, and beat him senseless… Everybody was hitting him or kicking him. One guy was kicking at his spine. Another guy was hitting him on the side of his face… he was unconscious. He was bleeding. Everybody had blood on their forearms. We ran back up the hill laughing… He should have died… He lost so much blood he turned white. He got what he deserved…” (Ridgeway 167). The skinheads who were beating this man up had no reason to do so except for the fact that he was Mexican. Racism in this day and age is still as big of a problem as it was in the past, and as long as hate groups are still around to promote violence, society is never going to grow to love one another.
Racism is the mistreatment of a group of people on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, place of origin, or ancestry. The term racism may also denote a blind and unreasoning hatred, envy, or prejudice (Dimensions of Racism). Racism has had a strong effect on society. Despite the many efforts made to alleviate racism, what is the future of African Americans' Racism's long history, important leaders, current status, and future outlook will be the main factors in determining how to combat racism. Racism is still present in many societies, although many people are doing their best to put an end to racism and its somewhat tragic ordeals.
Today, there are many Americans that believe racism ended with Jim Crow laws being abolished. Many believe it ended when “Separate but Equal” was no longer legal, and most recently people point to former President Obama and believe race is no longer an issue in the United States of America. These people are wrong for so many reason, but one of the biggest is that white Americans are segregating themselves from minorities. According to Bonilla-Silva and Embrick, only few white americans are integrated. Only four out of forty-one students have lived in a residential neighborhood with a significant black presence (Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo and Embrick, David). Additionally, 87% of white respondents said none of their 3 closest
Dating back to the beginning of times people have always been looked at different depending on the color of their skin or what your religion, race, or beliefs may be. It is in our human nature to not like people for certain things that they are. Many will argue that in this day in age we are no longer at a race war but how can you be so sure when you actually open your eyes and see reality. Rapper Kanye West once said “racism is still alive, they just be concealing it” and these words are everything but false. You must ask yourself the real question about racism and it is how could you ever cure such a thing in people’s minds? People are free to think and believe what ever they would like and old habits such as racism will never change in people.
... of such widespread hypocrisy. I question how a country that consistently professes to be a "beacon of light" to the rest of the world in areas of humanity covertly and overtly continue to oppress those categorized as "other". It is clearly documented that this nation was not built and maintained by white people yet the social policies of this country reflect a tone of under-appreciation. America is a country that requires loyalty from all but offers loyalty to the chosen few. To compare and contrast C. Matthew Snipp's article "Defining Race and Ethnicity", he asserts that race cannot be real because it's precise definition remains in a constant state of flux and how those shifts benefit some and oppress others. Snipp offered an alternative approach asserting that race is not defined in terms of ethnicity but by mystical, biological, and administrative definitions.
Black youths arrested for drug possession are 48 times more likely to wind up in prison than white youths arrested for the same crime under the same circumstances. Many people are unaware how constant racism has been throughout the years. It is important to understand the problems of racism because it is relevant to society. Racism in America is very real and Americans need to know it.