Tim Wise

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Black Education

Speech by Tim Wise at Washington State University.

Tim Wise speech at WSU (2009)

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

Unedited recording of Tim Wise's lecture at the UW Madison campus on 3/6/2014.

Tim Wise Lecture-UW Madison (3/6/2014)

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

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

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

Tim Wise On Movement Building And The Importance Of Youth

My appearance on KCRW to discuss the aftermath of the Charleston massacre and its meaning for the antiracism struggle. Other guests include journalist Jonathan Capehart, author Joshua Dubois, and Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Black Deaths and White Culture: Fighting Racism After Charleston (KCRW, June 24, 2015)

Ok, so this is purely about salvaging an old recording for posterity. I am 5 here, in April 1974. In this recording I am talking, reading part of a children's book (apparently about putting out a fire at the "whore house") and singing Jim Croce's "Bad Bad Leroy Brown," as well as the first line of "The Streak" and first two lines of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," though I totally butcher the lyrics of both of the last two. In The Streak I translate the line "showing off his great physique" to "showing off his great feet," and I change the words to one of Elton John's most famous songs from "where the dogs of society howl," to "On the banks of Gidgama Pod." I dunno...I was 5. You're welcome!

Tim Wise 1974 - Random Rambling, Reading and Singing (Age 5)

Ok, so, it's not all that great..and yes, it's in the service of the utterly lackluster and pathetic campaign of Walter Mondale in 1984...but hey, it was against Ronald Reagan (which makes it all worthwhile) and it was my first political speech (outside the confines of competitive debate/forensics), and I was 16, so...you gotta cut me some slack. This is my closing statement in the mock presidential debate of 1984, at Hillsboro High School in Nashville.

Tim Wise, Closing Statement - 1984 Mock Presidential Debate Hillsboro High School, Nashville, TN

A discussion of racism and its manifestations in so-called liberal communities, and the way that white progressives oftentimes overlook issues of race and white privilege, and thereby torpedo their own efforts for social justice...

Are Progressive Cities Worse For Racial Justice

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)

This is a portion of a larger speech, delivered at an event for service providers and community members, sponsored by the Milwaukee YWCA in 2008. In this segment, I discuss the difference between models of social service provision that are rooted in notions of "charity for" those in need, versus models rooted in "solidarity with" those in need, and why these differences matter.

Charity vs Solidarity

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)

This is my MLK Day Speech, 2010, delivered in Summit NJ and Fountain Baptist Church

Tim Wise MLK Speech 2010 - Fountain Baptist Church - Summit NJ

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 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)

Brief snippet from longer September, 2011 speech in Louisville at Spalding University. In this clip I discuss the importance of human empathy and the ways in which USAmerican culture devalues it in the name of patriotism and hyper-nationalism.

Empathy, Nationalism and Our Twisted Measures of Greatness (2011)

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)

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

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

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.