Tim Wise

Tim Wise keynote at MOSAIIC conference, Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, Lexington KY, (12/5/2014)

"Racism, White Denial and Criminal Justice - Ferguson and Beyond," Lexington KY 12/5/14

Answer to question from my December 2014 speech at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington, KY...

Tim Wise On The Trick Of Whiteness - Historically And Today

A radio-based presentation from 2006, in which I analyze the longstanding tendency for so many white, lower-middle class/working class voters to vote against their apparent economic interests -- by supporting candidates whose economic policies benefit mostly the wealthy -- and attempt to explain why this happens. Specifically, I explore the inadequacies of existing theories to explain this voting behavior (traditional Marxist analysis, as well as modern liberal analyses like those of Thomas Frank), and call for an understanding that places whiteness and white privilege squarely in the middle of the narrative.

What's The Matter With White Folks?

A brief clip from my 2011 speech at Spalding University in Louisville, KY, in which I note the way that the current economic crisis facing millions of Americans (including millions of whites) has in part been made possible by our prior indifference to the same suffering when it was localized in communities of color for years. In other words, not caring enough about black and brown unemployment and suffering leads to an indifference that eventually bleeds over to the larger society, taking millions of whites down with it. 

White Unemployment: The Collateral Damage of Racial Inequity (2011)

From a 2008 speech, 10 days after the election of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president. Brief snippet in which I respond to the common argument that Obama's victory means racism can't be a major national problem any longer. Here I explain the difference between individual success and achievement and collective liberation, and why the one does not say much, by necessity about the other.

Overcoming Racism: What Obama's Election Means (and Doesn't) (2008)

Section from a longer 2008 speech, 10 days after the presidential election, in which I discuss how racism of a 2.0 variety -- which I explain in the clip -- may be in full effect despite the election of Barack Obama to the office of the presidency. I also explore how black folks and people of color generally must meet a much higher threshold of acceptability to white voters than white candidates have had to meet, in terms of education, erudition, style and affect, and how the "archetype of acceptable blackness" may become more constricting then ever with the election of President Obama

Racism 2.0 and the Burden of Blackness in the Age of Obama

A portion of my recent talk at Emerson College, in Boston, MA. This talk was delivered one week to the day after the bombing during the Boston Marathon, which occurred approximately 6 blocks from the school.

Terrorism, Profiling and White:Christian Privilege

A portion of my speech at Emerson College in Boston, one week after the Marathon bombing, in which I discuss the disturbing connection between terrorism and other forms of injustice: economic inequity, the justice system, educational inequity, environmental pollution -- all connected by a mentality of disposability that defines certain people as deserving as others as "less than."

Tim Wise

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