I am writing this in response to assistant professor Haws’ commentary entitled, “Headlines tell half the story.” I find Haws’ argument that racial harmony illustrated by his friendly encounter with a black family is somehow caused by Obama to be the most absurd premise I have heard in some time.

Are we to believe Obama’s election is responsible for the invitation to eat with a black family? I grew up in a very racially diverse area of Texas and can tell you, yes – even in the South – I have always been greeted warmly by people of all races and ethnicities. If Obama’s election is causing racial harmony, then it must also be causing global warming and suicide bombing, because both are still occurring under his watch. Is it a stepping stone to the black community to have a president of their own race? Sure, but blacks and whites have been eating together for a very long time, and simply because this has only just happened to Haws, does not prove that Obama has ushered in the world we wish we could all live in. If anything, his argument shows his own stereotypes – that blacks offering to eat with him is an “unusual gesture.”

Anonymous

Sophomore in psychology