Tim Wise's Blog
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May.14.2013
But what about us?
It’s a question of which white folks seem never to tire when discussing subjects like affirmative action, or other diversity initiatives intended to expand opportunity and access for people of color in higher education and the job market.
Whenever these matters are broached...
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Apr.17.2013
As the nation weeps for the victims of the horrific bombing in Boston yesterday, one searches for lessons amid the carnage, and finds few. That violence is unacceptable stands out as one, sure. That hatred — for humanity, for life, or whatever else might have animated the bomber or bombers — is...
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Mar.20.2013
Sometimes, it’s good to just vent.
With that in mind, and before proceeding with a deeper and hopefully more constructive commentary about male violence and misogyny, perhaps it would do me well to release my first, instinctual thoughts about the guilty verdicts recently secured against two members...
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2 comments
Feb.21.2013
It’s one of those stories that can leave even the most jaded and cynical critic of racist thinking scratching their head; the kind that manages to shock even those of us for whom acts of bigotry and intolerance seem all-too-typical, and who have, sadly, come to expect them in a culture such as this...
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Aug.30.2012
It’s official. The symbolic head of the Republican Party is not Ronald Reagan. It’s Pee-Wee Herman.
It was Herman after all, as portrayed by comic actor Paul Reubens, whose only comeback to every criticism was, “I know you are but what am I?”
And it is this mantra — this maddening, childlike,...
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3 comments
Aug.25.2012
For the most part, I’ve tried to be restrained.
Although conservatives accuse those of us on the left of thinking that all critiques of President Obama are rooted in racism, this has certainly never been my argument. Indeed, I’ve written two books highly critical of Obama’s positions on a number of...
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1 comment
Aug.11.2012
In the pantheon of right-wing dog whistles, none is as tried, true, and generally effective as “welfare” bashing. Ever since the days of Ronald Reagan, who fabricated tales of a “welfare queen” collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash benefits by using multiple identities and Social...
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May.21.2012
Write this down if you need to.
Tweet it to yourself.
Put it on your Facebook wall, never to be deleted from your ever-growing and cluttered timeline.
Memorize it.
Trayvon Martin is not an inkblot, the meaning of which is yours to interpret.
He is not a walking Rorschach, whom one is free to see...
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Apr.10.2012
I swear, if I hear one more transparently racist person insist they aren’t racist because they have black friends, I am going to shoot them. But not because I’m violent. I’m not violent. And this I know because I have friends who are pacifists.
Yes, this is a joke, but seriously, it’s getting...
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Mar.27.2012
For a while now we’ve known that there were significant numbers of white Americans who wanted to “take their country back” to some mythical period of the nation’s hagiographic past. We’ve known it because they’ve told us so, as often and endlessly as their lungs will allow.
Little did we realize...
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Mar.21.2012
By now, you probably know the shameful details, but they are worth repeating, in any event.
On the evening of February 26, George Zimmerman, a self-appointed “neighborhood watch captain” in a gated, upscale Orlando suburb, shot and killed 17-year old Trayvon Martin.
Because Martin was black...
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Jan.12.2012
This commentary is rated MA for mature audiences. It contains some foul language, although honestly, only so much as is needed to get the damned point across. Parental discretion is advised…
Attention to all self-proclaimed liberals and progressives.
I would like to properly introduce you to a...
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Dec.29.2011
You’re tellin’ white lies You’re tellin’ white lies Well I can see right through that thin disguise Can’t you tell I can tell when you’re telling’ white lies? —Jason and the Scorchers, “White Lies”
Forget so-called “political correctness.” In Arizona, there is a far greater threat to free speech...
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May.02.2011
There is a particularly trenchant scene in the documentary film, Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead, in which Blecker - who teaches at New York University School of Law and is the nation's most prominent pro-death penalty scholar - travels to Tennessee's Riverbend Prison for the execution of convicted...
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Jan.17.2011
Perhaps it's no great surprise that Glenn Beck would distort Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s message, as he did when he held a rally for mostly white reactionaries on the 47th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech in August, all the while suggesting that the group was "...
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3 comments
About Tim
Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S., 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...
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