Name: Overcoming Racism: What Obama's Election Means (and Doesn't) (2008) by Tim Wise in Insights and Outbursts - Volume 1
Duration: 3 min 31 s
Description: 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.

These are short clips of longer speeches, focused on a particular narrow theme. Literally, sound bytes or a little more...

Insights and Outbursts - Volume 1

In this interview, Tim Wise discusses his latest book, Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich and Sacrificing the Future of America, and the nation's culture of cruelty with regard to those in need...

Connections - KGNU Boulder - Tim Wise on America's Culture of Cruelty

In this brief clip from Tim Wise's recent appearance w/Dolewite on Nashville's 101.1 The Beat, Wise responds to common white deflections about racism, and explores the selective way in which white Americans choose to remember (or forget) certain aspects of our history.

Tim Wise on Racism and the Selectivity of White Memory (101.1 The Beat w/Dolewite)

In this brief clip during his conversation w/Dolewite (101.1 The Beat in Nashville), Tim Wise explains the importance of saying "Black lives matter," and responds to the absurd claims by some that BLM and the movement for police reform and accountability is "waging a war on cops."

Tim Wise on the Pushback to Black Lives Matter (101.1 The Beat w/Dolewite)

In this clip, from his conversation w/Dolewite (101.1 The Beat in Nashville), Tim Wise discusses the proven racial disproportionality of police misconduct in communities of color and responds to those who claim there is no such disparity or that such disparities are justified by crime rates in black and brown spaces

Tim Wise on What the Evidence Says About Policing and Race (101.1 The Beat w/Dolewite)

In this clip, from his conversation with Dolewite (101.1 The Beat, in Nashville), Tim Wise responds to the common argument that black folks should spend less time worrying about police brutality and more time addressing "black on black crime."

Tim Wise on the "Black on Black Crime" Deflection (101.1 The Beat w/Dolewite)

In this clip from his conversation with Dolewite (101.1 The Beat in Nashville), Tim Wise explores the reasons why so many white Americans seem unwilling to listen to people of color when it comes to their experiences with racism and discrimination.

Tim Wise on the Reasons for White Denial (101.1 The Beat w/Dolewite)

In this clip from his conversation with Dolewite (101.1 The Beat in Nashville), Tim Wise examined the history of the notion of whiteness and how it has been used to divide and conquer working class people for hundreds of years.

Tim Wise on Why Whiteness is a Dangerous Hustle (101.1 The Beat w/Dolewite)

Brief discussion of David Duke's recent announcement that he is running for the U.S. Senate. In this track, I discuss Duke's Nazism and the danger of downplaying the threat he poses, and play excerpts from a 1986 interview in which Duke admitted his goal was to bring the government down and create an all-white nation. In these excerpts, Duke responds to a fellow Nazi -- who mentions that Hitler started with just seven men -- by saying "Exactly, and don't you think we could do it here too, if we just put the right package together?" Clear evidence that David Duke is a dangerous racist who has no place in the American political system. 

David Duke: Still a Nazi After All These Years

These are two radio commercials that the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism (for which I was Associate Director) ran against David Duke in his 1991 Gubernatorial race in Louisiana. In them, Duke discusses the need for a Hitler-style revolution in America and says Jews deserve to "go into the ashbin of history." I am posting them now in response to Duke's announcement that he is running for U.S. Senate this year. It is important to remember what this man really believes and has been seeking to accomplish his entire adult life.

Anti-David Duke Commercials from 1991

This is Tim Wise's August 2016 discussion with Chauncey DeVega, in which the two discuss the 2016 election, Donald Trump, the politics of white racial resentment, the notion of political "harm reduction," the unfortunate inadequacy of logic in political movement building, and the right's deployment of "Negrophobia" in their discussions of crime and violence...among some other things...

Tim Wise on the Chauncey DeVega Show - August 2016

A snippet of my 2005 speech at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, discussing the ways in which privilege and the obliviousness that comes with it can leave people dangerously unsafe, whether nationally (as in the case of our reaction to 9/11) or locally (as with the reaction to the shootings at Columbine High School and others).

Why Do They Hate Us - Reflections on the Pathology of Privilege (2005)

A brief snippet from my 2005 speech at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in L.A. In this clip, I'm discussing the way in which white liberal and left activists sometimes minimize the issue of race and racism within social justice efforts (around the environment, health care and militarism), and the way in which that fractures potential social justice coalitions.

White Liberal/Left Colorblindness and Social Justice (2005)

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 very brief snippet from my January, 1997 MLK presentation at Central Michigan University, in which I am contrasting our national reactions to personal evil and violence committed by individuals with our lack of reaction to institutional evil and violence perpetrated by policymakers. One thing that is immediately noticeable about my speaking back then is that I spoke waaay faster back then: partly nerves I am guessing, and also partly the inexperience that causes one not to value the power of a pause...

Personal Versus Institutional Violence (1997)

A snippet from my October 2001 speech at Ohio State University, as part of a conference on Building Movements for Social Justice. This clip discusses the ways in which the war on drugs and the criminal justice system function as mechanisms of social control, especially in the post-jim Crow era, and how even our definitions of crime and deviance favor some and disfavor others

Race, Crime and Social Control (2001)

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)

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States, and has been called, “One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation,” by best-selling author and professor Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University. Wise, who was named one of “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World,” by Utne Reader in 2010, has spoken in all 50 states of the U.S., on over 800 college and high school campuses, and to community groups across the nation. He has also lectured internationally in Canada and Bermuda on issues of comparative racism, race and education, racism and religion, and racism in the labor market.

Wise is the author of six books, including the highly acclaimed memoir, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son; an academic volume on affirmative action, entitled, Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White; an essay collection, entitled, Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male; two books on race and racism in the Obama era, entitled respectively, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama, and Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity; and his latest, Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority, which examines rising white anxiety in an increasingly multicultural nation. He has contributed essays to twenty-five books, and is one of several persons featured in White Men Challenging Racism: Thirty-Five Personal Stories, from Duke University Press. He received the 2001 British Diversity Award for best feature essay on race issues, and his writings have appeared in dozens of popular, professional and scholarly journals.

Wise has provided anti-racism training to teachers nationwide, and has conducted trainings with physicians and medical industry professionals on how to combat racial inequities in health care. He has also trained corporate, government, entertainment, military and law enforcement officials on methods for dismantling racism in their institutions, and has served as a consultant for plaintiff’s attorneys in federal discrimination cases in New York and Washington State.

In summer, 2005, Wise served as an adjunct faculty member at the Smith College School for Social Work, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he co-taught a Master’s level class on Racism in the U.S. In 2001, Wise trained journalists to eliminate racial bias in reporting, as a visiting faculty-in-residence at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. From 1999-2003, Wise was an advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute, in Nashville, and in the early ’90s he was Youth Coordinator and Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism: the largest of the many groups organized for the purpose of defeating neo-Nazi political candidate, David Duke. He graduated from Tulane University in 1990 and received antiracism training from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, in New Orleans.

Wise has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs, is a regular contributor to discussions about race on CNN, and was featured in a segment on ABC’s 20/20, in 2007.

Tim and his wife Kristy are the proud parents of two daughters.

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

Tim Wise

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