Tim Wise

A brief snip from my January, 1997 MLK presentation at Central Michigan University, in which I briefly note the importance of radical activists in the struggle for social justice.

The Importance of Radicalism (1997)

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?

From my September 2011 talk at Spalding University in Louisville, KY. In this snippet, I respond to a question about how we should understand or think about biracial and multiracial folks' experiences in a system of racism/white supremacy.

Racism, White Supremacy and Biracial/Multiraciality (2011)

This brief sound file is from my longer talk on racism and public health, delivered at Georgia State in Atlanta, April 12, 2012. I make the point that too often we define "cultural competence" as coming to understand the racial/ethnic/cultural "other," so as to fit them in with the dominant cultural norm; yet the problem might be the "norm" itself, and perhaps the more important form of competence would be to come to understand the workings of the dominant group and its tendency to marginalize others

Redefining Cultural Competence

This is the core of my speech at Georgia State, in Atlanta, in April, 2012, on Racism and Public Health. Here I discuss racial health disparities in the U.S., the way these disparities are ignored, explained away or rationalized by most whites, and the link between racial micro-aggressions and discrimination in health care delivery on the one hand, and worse health outcomes for people of color, on the other. I also discuss the unexpected costs of racial privilege for whites: the downside of developing an entitlement and expectation mentality and the larger societal costs of persistent inequities.

Tim Wise

Kenneth Atchinson