podcast

blackness

affluensa

tim wise

DICK GREGORY WILL BE ONE THE OF THE SPEAKERS ON REAL LIFE STREET LIFE

Dick Gregory Exposed Police Shootings and Staged Event

We look back at the Young Lords, a radical group founded by Puerto Ricans modeled on the Black Panther Party. In late July 1969, the group staged their first action in an effort to force the City of New York to increase garbage pickup in East Harlem. The Young Lords would go on to inspire activists around the country as they occupied churches and hospitals in an attempt to open the spaces to community projects. The group called for self-determination for all Puerto Ricans; independence for the island of Puerto Rico; community control of institutions and land; freedom for all political prisoners; and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, Puerto Rico and other areas. The Young Lords would also play a pivotal role in spreading awareness of Puerto Rican culture and history. While the group disintegrated in the mid-1970s, its impact is still felt today. The Young Lords is the focus of a new art exhibit organized by The Bronx Museum of the Arts called "¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York." It is on view at three different cultural institutions in New York. We speak to our very own Juan González, who served as the group’s first minister of education, and Johanna Fernández, co-curator of "¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York" at The Bronx Museum of the Arts.
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From Garbage Offensives to Occupying Churches, Actions of the Young Lords Continue to Inspire

(There is a buzz on Jane's landline, before the days of current technology, but it goes away. I am unable to get rid of the buzz no matter how I edit this clip) 

In 2009, I had the pleasure of speaking to Jane Elliott, internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education, exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is, an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. And if you think this does not apply to you. . . you are in for a rude awakening.

In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. over thirty years ago, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise. This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority. Everyone who is exposed to Jane Elliott's work, be it through a lecture, workshop, or video, is dramatically affected by it. 

http://www.janeelliott.com/

One Hour with Jane Elliott [Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes exercise]

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 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

Dick Gregory, 79, took part in Sunday’s march against NYPD's "stop-and-frisk" policy in New York City. He criticized police departments across the country for racially profiling persons of color. “It's happening all the time, it's just there was never no spotlight on it, and that's what's so beautiful about this here,” Gregory said. 

Watch our extended video report from the protest: http://youtu.be/rPJVc45jw9o

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Longtime Comedian & Activist Dick Gregory Condemns Routine Targeting of Black Youth by NYPD

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)

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)

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)

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.