Food For Thought

Tim Wise

prison talk

Left Speakers

Shambhala

This is a recording of my Feb 10, 2014 presentation at Princeton University. The first 40 minutes is my talk, followed by another 40 minute dialogue with scholar (and Princeton professor) Imani Perry, followed by a Q/A with the audience

Tim Wise At Princeton (With Imani Perry) 2/10/14: Colorblindness and the Myth of Post-Racialism

My interview, 5/1/14 with Pete Dominick on Sirius XM, discussing race issues for the prior week, including Donald Sterling, Cliven Bundy, and other issues...

Tim Wise on Stand Up With Pete Dominick 5/1/14

Michael Parenti talks about the functions of the state, sometime around '93...

Michael Parenti - The Gangster Nature of the State

Part one: Adam Lobel

Part Two: Adam Lobel

Part Three: Adam Lobel

Professor Noam Chomsky, UCL Rickman Godlee Lecture 2011 (Part 3 of 3)

Contours of global order: Domination, stability, security in a changing world.

Professor Noam Chomsky explores the crucial role of a supportive intellectual culture in an environment of potentially dangerous irrationality in policy-making circles and among sectors of the political class, while institutional structures bar efforts to confront very serious domestic and international issues.

UCLTV Playlist of lecture excerpts: http://bit.ly/dKk2qY

Further links:
Blog post on the event: http://bit.ly/hwklig 
Professor Chomsky's MIT page: http://bit.ly/gon5cT

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the world's top universities. Across all disciplines our faculties are known for their research-intensive approaches, academic excellence and engagement with global challenges. This is the basis of our world-renowned degree programmes. Visit us at www.ucl.ac.uk.

Professor Noam Chomsky - UCL Rickman Godlee Lecture 2011 (Part 3 of 3): Questions & Answers

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

My answer to a question at the Lexington KY MOSAIIC conference, December 2014, concerning the connection of regional identity to antiracist commitment...

Tim Wise On Race And The Value Of Southern Identity

Strength of Love (Remix)

Joel Geier spoke at Socialism 2011 in Chicago on Marxism and revolution. Originally uploaded at http://wearemany.org/a/2011/07/marxism-and-revolution

Marxism and Revolution

For those of you who couldn't attend Dr. Chomsky's lecture on the Israel-Palestine conflict in person, I've uploaded the complete lecture and subsequent Q&A.

Noam Chomsky Israel-Palestine Lecture Q&A; ASU 2.9.12

Listen to the ENTIRE interview here: 
http://traffic.libsyn.com/smellslikepodcast/Smells_Like_Human_Spirit_Episode_13_-_Michael_Parenti_on_The_Corporate_Plutocracy.mp3

Internationally known award winning-author and lecturer Michael Parenti laments on how the mass media attempted to omit, and then trivialize, the Occupy movement.

From the Smells Like Human Spirit Podcast

For more visit http://www.smellslikepodcast.com

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Michael Parenti - How The Media Trivialized The Occupy Movement

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)

Just a brief snip from my 2011 speech at Spalding University in Louisville, KY, in which I note the interesting fact that the U.S., despite (or perhaps because of) our relative power and advantage vis-a-vis the rest of the world has the highest rate of anxiety disorders on the planet, and ask what that might mean about the hidden costs of inequality, even for those on the top of the power pyramid...

Privilege, Power and Anxiety: Hidden Costs of Inequality (2011)

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)

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

From my September 2011 speech at Spalding University in Louisville. In this clip I discuss the way in which the U.S. clearly prioritizes incarceration over education, and analyze the systemic logic -- however twisted -- of inequality, and how it is "rational" from the perspective of those who benefit from the economic status quo...

Schools, Prisons and the Disturbing Logic of Inequality (2011)

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.

Racism, Public Health and the High Cost of White Denial

Because of severe overcrowding in California prisons that posed a risk to the health and safety of inmates, a federal court in 2009 ordered the state to reduce the number of prisoners in California lockups. To do so, the state sent more than 40,000 inmates from state prisons to county jails and improved medical care in state prisons. This week, Governor Jerry Brown said California has solved its prison problems and that it's time for the state to get out from under federal oversight. But critics say reforms haven't gone far enough and inmates are still at risk. Here's our story on the issue.  (Photo courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

Has Prison Reform in California Gone Far Enough?

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."

Terrorism, Inequality and the Mentality of Disposability

Alexander Maclean, founder of the African Prisons Project, has spent considerable time studying and improving the conditions of prisons across Africa. He speaks to us about his observations of the interplay between the justice and prison systems in Africa, and some of the innovative rehabilitative techniques used, including the use of music.

An interview with Conrad Chua, Head of Marketing and Admissions for the Cambridge MBA.

Music in prisons - rehabilitation in South African prisons

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.