Racism in the United States

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... ... middle of paper ... ...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>.