At dinner, wealthy black CEO Thaddeus Thomas discusses white people and claims they are "genetically inferior" because their children grow up without fathers.

Trying to improve himself, white candy factory worker Louis Pinnock offers to deliver a package to Thomas after his shift.

Thomas notices and complains to the vice-president of the factory, during a dinner engagement at his house, that he would prefer a different delivery man instead of a "peeping Tom".

In a quest for justice, Pinnock kidnaps Thomas at gunpoint and demands a large sum of money that he believes is owed him for losing his job.

After multiple failed attempts to withdraw the money, Pinnock holds Thomas hostage for the weekend and takes him through the ghetto where he lives.

[4][5][6][7] It holds a 24% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews with the consensus: "Despite earnest work from its leads, White Man's Burden's attempt at racial commentary is a well-intentioned misfire.

[10] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote "Were it not for John Travolta's big-hearted portrayal of an unemployed white factory worker driven to commit a desperate act, the movie would be an emotionally frozen exercise in cautious high-mindedness".