Acculturation of the Minorities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Acculturation of the Minorities - Essay Example As per Robert Jensen1, the west is a society dominated by ‘White’ people who enjoy privileges often just because of their being white. Their flaws are easily forgiven and are often preferred to other races as they seem ‘less threatening’. These basic assumptions seem to have opened a Pandora box of secrets of ideologies and policies that govern the west. The ‘affirmative actions’ taken by the administration to endorse the policy of equal opportunity looks as if it was issued to emphasize that the ‘whites’ are not afraid of the merits of other races and not as a gesture of belief in general. They have underlined the fact that the superiority complex that the whites seem to have nurtured through the ages might be in the process of disintegrating. The intangible threats from the people who are not white seem to strengthen the bond among the whites. It also seriously questions the integrity of the whites and whether they truly deserve their successes under the given circumstances. Richard Dyer2 goes a step further by stating that racial imagery is central to the organization of the modern world. It is the projection of people and their characteristics, which includes their culture, religion, food habits, nationality, the color of skin etc. that defines racism. Through the decades, Whites have projected themselves as powers that speak and think about other people. They have successfully defined races and nonwhite people. As per Dyer, whites are beyond races and as such, they think themselves as above the rest of the humanity. It is most evident when they address other people as blacks, Chinese, Asians etc. Dyer argues that the biggest challenge the whites are facing today is the authenticity of the whites.