Tim Wise, nationally recognized cultural diversity advocate, anti-racist activist, author, and lecturer, will speak on "Colorblind Ambition: Barack Obama, Post-Racial Liberalism and the Retreat from Racial Equity" at the 2010 Dealing with Difference Institute on Tuesday, May 18, in the Multicultural Center on Western Illinois University's Macomb campus.
The title echoes that of his forthcoming book, a book that explores the inadequacy of colorblindness as a remedy for institutional racial disparities and the inequities inherent in white privilege. Though invoked as a way of moving beyond racial issues, or in Wise's words, as "a rhetoric of racial transcendence," colorblindness leaves white privilege in place both "in public policy and private practice," in our schools, in our workplaces, and in the various other institutions that comprise our society. In his presentation, Wise will "propose an alternative framework for uprooting racial inequity which can be implemented by educators and others right now, with or without the support of public policymakers, new laws, new funding, or any other institutional backing."
In addition to his many articles, book chapters, and Red Room Blog entries (http://redroom.com/blog/tim-wise), Wise has published several important books on racial issues. These include White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White, Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections from an Angry White Male, and Between Barack and a Hard Place: Race and Whiteness in the Age of Obama. In White Like Me, Wise uses incidents from his own life to illustrate the pervasiveness of the privilege European Americans enjoy in the U.S.A., whether or not they are aware of it. While doing this, he explores his own developing realization of the white privilege that has benefited him and his family even though they made no effort to earn it.
Wise continues his examination of white privilege in Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White. As Columbia University Law Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, states in her review of the book, Wise "proves beyond question that every day is affirmative action day for the dominant group in America." Wise insists that as long as this is true, efforts to broaden the scope of civil rights and equity in this country must continue, including in the educational systems that help perpetuate inequity. The essays collected in Speaking Treason Fluently cover a broader range of topics than Affirmative Action, but all contribute to Wise's analysis of racial privilege and its destructive impact on both African and European Americans. His subjects reflect contemporary events, such as Hurricane Katrina and school shootings, and allow him to comment on people who have captured national headlines, if only for a few weeks.
Wise does not veer from his focus on racial privilege in Between Barack and a Hard Place or in his forthcoming Colorblind Ambition. Rather, as Jamilah King, writing for Colorlines, explains, Wise incisively shows "how racism and white privilege have morphed to fit the modern social landscape. In prose that reads like his lightning rod speeches," he defines "a more insidious form of racism that actually allows for and celebrates the achievements of individual people of color because they're seen as exceptions, not the rules." It is this move toward colorblindness and complacency in a world that still reflects white privilege and inequities associated with superficial phenotypical stereotypes that Wise will confront in his presentation.
Insightful and provocative, Tim Wise will challenge DWDI participants to examine their own relationship to white privilege and racial inequity, master narratives that have contributed to the identity of the U.S.A. Though their existence is often denied since they can be invisible to many, their impact, like that of other master narratives, defines the values of the nation and can determine the opportunities available to individuals.
