 Red Room Writer Profile
|
|
Tim Wise's Blog
February 27, 2010
- Recently, I received an e-mail from a college professor who shows a video of one of my speeches in her classroom. She explained that she was in need of a citation for a claim I had made in the video, to the effect that although blacks and Latinos are far more likely than whites to be searched by police after a traffic stop, it is whites who are more likely--four times more likely in fact--to be ...
- Continue Reading » 54 Comments
December 27, 2009
- This Christmas Eve, I stood guard, anxiously surveying the narrow border between childhood innocence and the complex wisdom of messy adulthood. Little had I realized before now, how perilously close to one another are these two geographic spaces, and with what relatively modest effort a person might cross from the first of these to the next, all in a matter of seconds. While my wife brought in ...
- Continue Reading » 4 Comments
October 19, 2009
- There is none so dangerous as the white American who waxes nostalgic about what he or she likes to call "the good old days." Or, alternately, those "simpler" times, or the era of so-called "innocence" remembered from their childhoods, memorialized in a Norman Rockwell painting, or via televised re-runs of the Cleaver family, or Opie Taylor casting a line down at the ...
- Continue Reading » 25 Comments
September 14, 2009
- At first it seemed little more than a bizarre rant, only slightly worse than those to which we've grown accustomed, given the source. To wit, Rush Limbaugh, who on September 11 condemned President Obama for speaking that day about community service, and encouraging young people to become involved in service projects as a way to help make America a better place. Far from seeing such a call as a ...
- Continue Reading » 10 Comments
September 7, 2009
- Van Jones, special advisor to the President's Council on Environmental Quality, has resigned from the administration. To be honest, he was forced out. Oh, perhaps not directly, but if not, then by the stunning silence of his employer. An employer more concerned about appeasing the right-wing bullies who sought to make Jones a liability for him, than about standing up for a brilliant thinker on ...
- Continue Reading » 6 Comments
August 19, 2009
- Apparently it doesn't take much to get under the skin of conservative talk show hosts. First, there was Rush Limbaugh, attacking me for my comments earlier this week on CNN. He called me a liar for claiming that he had said President Obama hated white people, and he was even more inflamed by my suggestion that the founders of the country had believed in white supremacy. I answered his ...
- Continue Reading » 14 Comments
August 18, 2009
- Today is a glorious day indeed. First, our youngest daughter began kindergarten this morning, amidst great excitement and enthusiasm, and was walked to her classroom by her big sister (in 2nd grade), who felt especially "adult" for getting to do that, I'm sure.And secondly, because yesterday afternoon, Rush Limbaugh attacked me on air. The afterglow, as they say, is still with ...
- Continue Reading » 7 Comments
August 17, 2009
- "How dare you say this is about racism!"And a pleasant Monday to you too sunshine, I thought, as I stared at my computer screen this morning, reading over the first e-mail of the day.It was from someone who had apparently seen my presentation on CNN last night, in which I explained why racism is indeed a driving force behind the outpouring of anger we've been seeing at the various ...
- Continue Reading » 30 Comments
August 12, 2009
- If you get a chance, today or perhaps tomorrow, do yourself a favor. Look up some file footage, perhaps on YouTube, of Adolf Hitler, addressing his followers. I know, it doesn't sound like the best way to spend your day, or even a few minutes of it, but trust me, there's a point to the recommendation. While you watch, notice the unhinged shouting, the wild eyes, the veins on his neck, the ...
- Continue Reading » 7 Comments
August 10, 2009
- Throughout the first six months of his administration, President Obama--perhaps one of the most politically cautious leaders in contemporary history--has been routinely portrayed as a radical by his opponents on the far-right. In particular, persons who have apparently never actually studied Marxism (or if they did, managed to somehow find therein support for such things as bailing out banks and ...
- Continue Reading » 6 Comments
July 29, 2009
- It is understandable that honest and decent people may disagree about the circumstances surrounding the arrest last week of Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Cambridge. For some, Gates was to blame for what happened. He became belligerent with Sgt James Crowley, and thus precipitated his arrest on charges of disorderly conduct. Others point out that being belligerent to an officer does not meet the legal ...
- Continue Reading » 48 Comments
July 27, 2009
- If you wish to gaze upon the depth and breadth of America's racial divide--particularly the canyon-like gulf between white folks and black folks--you need look no further than the recent incident involving Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cambridge police officer James Crowley, and now, President Obama who weighed in on the matter a few nights ago, when asked for his reaction to Gates's ...
- Continue Reading » 18 Comments
July 22, 2009
- Surely by now you've heard the news. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. (who TIME Magazine has named one of the most influential persons in the United States, and who is arguably the most cited black scholar on the planet) was recently arrested. This, after breaking into his own home, in Cambridge, Massachusetts when, upon returning from a trip to China, he discovered his front door damaged ...
- Continue Reading » 4 Comments
July 9, 2009
- On the one hand, racism is so deeply embedded in the history and structure of the United States, that it shouldn't be particularly surprising when a story emerges, indicating that indeed, that racism has bubbled to the surface yet again. But on the other hand, sometimes a story finds its way into the public realm, which is of such a profoundly disturbing nature, that you can't help but do a ...
- Continue Reading » 14 Comments
July 5, 2009
- I have this fantasy, the indulgence of which I resist, due in part to the impracticality of it, but also, and mostly out of a general distaste for inviting potential violence upon my person. It only comes to mind once a year really, on this day in fact, as cities and towns across the United States gear up for their respective July 4th celebrations, replete with fireworks, hot dogs, and lots of ...
- Continue Reading » 5 Comments
