Journalism professor interviewed on NPR: “How Do Americans Talk About Race?”

AUSTIN, Texas — March 20, 2008 — Robert Jensen, associate professor in the School of Journalism and author of “The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege” (City Lights, 2005), appeared on National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” today.

Jensen was one of three guests who shared expertise on the ways in which Americans talk about race in public and in private. The program, “How Do Americans Talk About Race?”, was the result of Sen. Barack Obama’s speech Tuesday about the role race has played in the presidential campaign and the racially charged remarks made by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The other experts on the program were: Erin Aubry Kaplan, columnist for “The Los Angeles Times,” and author of the op-ed “Black Isn't Enough”; Michael Meyers, executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition and author of the Los Angeles Times op-ed “Obama Blew It”; and Gustavo Arellano, writer of the Ask a Mexican column.

Audio of the program is available online at the Talk of the Nation Website.

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