Tim Wise

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tim Wise is an American anti-racist activist and writer.

[edit] Background

Wise attended Tulane University in New Orleans and received his B.A. there, and went on to receive his antiracism training at the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, also located in New Orleans. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and two daughters. Wise is the Director of the newly-formed Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE) in Nashville, Tennessee. He is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S., having given lectures in 46 different states, and on over 300 college campuses. He has trained a multitude of teachers, corporate employees and law enforcement officers in methods for dismantling racism in their institutions. From 1999 to 2003, Wise held the position of advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute and also was Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism. Wise received the 2002 National Youth Advocacy Coalition's Social Justice Impact Award as well as the 2001 British Diversity Award. He has appeared on radio and television broadcasts arguing the case for Affirmative Action and slavery reparations for African-Americans, as well as a revised education system and an end to systemic white privilege.

Wise believes that racism in the United States is no longer an overt entity and must be challenged on a psychological level. He argues that most white Americans inadvertently support a racist system of oppression. (However, he adds that when the majority of these white Americans are made aware of their unfair privilege and the resulting unfair proleteriatization of their fellow non-white Americans, they are horrified and willing to change.)

Wise denounces all forms of racism, including what he sees as a war of racist colonization by Israel upon Palestine, which he, a Jew himself, feels counter "the principles of peace, justice, and fairness: those concepts that I learned in Hebrew School were paramount to my people." [1]. He also has accused right wing supporters of Israel of using anti-semitism as a shield against criticism of Israel's policies. It should additionally be pointed out that Wise has voiced his opposition to anti-semitic conspiracy theories in the past, including the highly popular myth among American anti-semites that "Jews control the American Media". Wise has also been a vocal critic of President George W. Bush and of both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, which he considers racist and imperialist aggressions, and of all of the Bush administration's post-9/11 foreign and domestic policies.

[edit] Criticism

His main detractors, prominent conservatives such as David Horowitz and Dinesh D'Souza, accuse him of supporting reverse racism against whites while simultaneously harboring snide racist beliefs that non-whites are inferior and need affirmative action in order to compete with their white counterparts. Wise has denied the charges and insisted that affirmative action is a system created to address the wounds of past and present racial discrimination that have left clearly visible economic burdens on minorities, the African-American community in particular. Dinesh D'Souza has labeled Wise "The Uncle Tom of the white race".

Wise also has damaged his standing on some of the left by accusing Michael Moore of racism because of a scene in Fahrenheit 9/11 that mocks the nations in the Coalition of the Willing. Critics regard this as seeking out racism in places where it does not exist, due to the fact that in the contended scene, European, South American and North African cultures are all mocked along side one another with traditional stereotypes at hand.

Wise's supporters contend that he focuses his attention on white males for the same reason that left-wing icon Noam Chomsky spends most of his energy criticizing the United States government even though other nations have committed similar atrocities - because he is a part of that category or system, and is therefore more capable of changing that system.