Tim Wise

{{Infobox person

|name = Tim Wise

|image = Tim Wise (cropped).jpg

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|caption = Wise in 2011

|birth_name = Timothy Jacob Wise

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1968|10|04}}

|birth_place = Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

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|education = B.A., Political Science

|alma_mater = Tulane University

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|children = 2

|occupation = Anti-racism activist, writer

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|website = {{URL|timwise.org}}

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Timothy Jacob Wise (born October 4, 1968){{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NT-UCgAAQBAJ&dq=tim+wise+1968+oct&pg=PT269|title=White Allies in the Struggle for Racial Justice|first=Boyd|last=Drick|date=October 23, 2015|publisher=Orbis Books|isbn=9781608336159|via=Google Books}} is an American activist and writer on the topic of race.{{cite news|last=Bradley|first=Adam|title=Book Reviews: 'Between Barack and a Hard Place' By Tim Wise {{!}} 'More Than Just Race' By William Julius Wilson|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/27/AR2009032701459.html|access-date=December 7, 2011|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=March 29, 2009}} He is a consultant who provides anti-racism lectures to institutions.{{cite journal|last=Cook|first=David|title=By The Color Of Their Skin: Tim Wise On The Myth Of A Postracial America|journal=The Sun|date=July 2009|issue=403|url=http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/403/by_the_color_of_their_skin}}

Early life and education

Wise was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to Michael Julius Wise and LuCinda Anne (née McLean) Wise. His paternal grandfather was Jewish (of Russian origin). The rest of his ancestry is mostly northern European, including some Scottish.{{cite web|url=http://www.timwise.org/2010/11/silly-nazis-encounters-with-idiots-from-childhood-to-the-present/ |title=Silly Nazis: Encounters With Idiots, from Childhood to the Present |publisher=Tim Wise |date=2010-11-08 |access-date=2013-05-28|quote=More to the point, and as regards myself, my Jewish lineage extends only on my Y-chromosome, that is to say, my paternal paternal line, as three of my four grandparents are of Northern European and decidedly non-Jewish derivation.}}{{cite book|last=Wise|first=Tim|title=White Like Me|year=2005|publisher=Soft Skull Press|location=Brooklyn, NY|isbn=1-932360-68-9|url=https://archive.org/details/whitelikemerefle00wise/page/5|page=[https://archive.org/details/whitelikemerefle00wise/page/5 5]}} Wise has said that when he was about 12 years old his synagogue was attacked by white supremacists.[http://www.timwise.org/2014/12/tim-wise-on-the-rock-newman-show-race-and-racism-in-america-121014/ Tim Wise on Race and Racism in America]; The Rock Newman Show (44-47 min. mark); December 10, 2014 Wise attended public schools in Nashville, graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1986.{{cite web|title=Class of 1986, Hillsboro H.S. (Nashville, TN)|url=http://www.tree52.com/Groups_Class.php?csc=1986&csi=185&csn=Hillsboro%20H.S.|publisher=Tree52|access-date=December 7, 2011}} Wise has a BA from Tulane University in New Orleans. He majored in Political Science and minored in Latin American Studies.{{cite web|title=Tim Wise|url=http://libguides.depauw.edu/timwise|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621145715/http://libguides.depauw.edu/timwise|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 21, 2010|publisher=DePauw University|access-date=August 18, 2012}} While a student, he was a leader in the campus anti-apartheid movement, which sought to force Tulane to divest from companies still doing business with the government of South Africa. His anti-apartheid activism was first brought to national attention in 1988, when South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced he would turn down an offer of an honorary degree from Tulane after Wise's group informed him of the school's ongoing investments there.{{cite web|title=Power of One: Tim Wise|url=http://suavv.com/2011/05/power-of-one-tim-wise/|publisher=SUAVV|author=Kadeem|date=May 7, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130114955/http://suavv.com/2011/05/power-of-one-tim-wise/|archive-date=January 30, 2012}}

Career

After graduating from Tulane in 1990, Wise started working as an anti-racism activist after receiving training from the New Orleans–based People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. Wise began initially as a youth coordinator, and then associate director, of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, the largest of the various organizations founded for the purpose of defeating political candidate David Duke when Duke ran for U.S. Senate in 1990 and Governor of Louisiana in 1991.{{cite journal|last=Lee|first=Martin A.|title=Detailing David Duke|journal=Intelligence Report|date=Spring 2003|volume=18|issue=109|pages=295–310|url=http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2003/spring/detailing-david-duke|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center|doi=10.1023/A:1023250105036|s2cid=36135157|url-access=subscription}}{{cite news|last=Applebome|first=Peter|title=THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Republicans; Duke's Candidacy Raises Legal Questions About State Ballot Laws|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/06/us/1992-campaign-republicans-duke-s-candidacy-raises-legal-questions-about-state.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 6, 1992}} After his work campaigning against David Duke, Wise worked for a number of community-based organizations and political groups in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, including the Louisiana Coalition for Tax Justice, the Louisiana Injured Worker's Union and Agenda for Children.White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son; Tim Wise; Soft Skull Press; Pgs. 168-173 Later in the 1990s, Wise began lecturing around the country on the issues of racism, criticizing white privilege (his own included), and defending affirmative action.{{cite news|title=Reverse discrimination debate causes outrage |url=http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/gater/fall96/oct22/04.html |newspaper=Golden Gater |date=October 22, 1996 |author=Mugo wa Macharia |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970521100844/http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/gater/fall96/oct22/04.html |archive-date=May 21, 1997 }}

From 1999 to 2003, Wise was an advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute.{{Cite web|url=http://www.timwise.org/about/|title = About|date = 29 May 2010}} Wise argues that racism in the United States is institutionalized due to past overt racism (and its ongoing effects) along with current-day discrimination. Although he concedes that personal, overt bias is less common than in the past (or at least less openly articulated), Wise argues that existing institutions continue to foster and perpetuate white privilege, and that subtle, impersonal, and even ostensibly race-neutral policies contribute to racism and racial inequality today.{{cite news|last=McLarin|first=Kim|title=MODERN LOVE; Race Wasn't an Issue to Him, Which Was an Issue to Me|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9500E5D61E3EF930A3575AC0A9609C8B63&scp=6&sq=&pagewanted=all|work=The New York Times|date=September 3, 2006}} Wise starred in a 2013 documentary entitled White Like Me, based on the book by Wise of the same name.{{cite web|work=Slate|date=August 16, 2013|title=Are You White? Then You Should Probably Watch This.|first=Aisha|last=Harris|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/08/16/white_like_me_movie_with_tim_wise_should_be_seen_by_all_especially_white.html}}

Personal life

After living in New Orleans for ten years, Wise relocated to his native Nashville in 1996. In 1998, he married and has two children.{{cite web|work=The Sun|url=http://thesunmagazine.org/issues/403/by_the_color_of_their_skin|issue=403|date=July 2009|title=By The Color Of Their Skin, Tim Wise On The Myth Of A Postracial America|first=David|last=Cook}} Wise considers himself Jewish by heritage and ethnicity, but does not practice Judaism as a religion.[http://www.timwise.org/2015/03/responding-to-a-young-reactionary-white-privilege-judaism-and-the-making-of-sloppy-analogies/ Time Wise website: "Responding to a Young Reactionary: White Privilege, Judaism and the Making of Sloppy Analogies"] March 5, 2015 He is a critic of Israel, and philosophically opposed to Zionism, which he views as not only oppressive to non-Jews in Palestine, but detrimental to Jews as well, and counter to Jewish values.{{cite web|url=http://www.timwise.org/tag/zionism/|title=Zionism articles|publisher=TimWise.org|access-date=June 15, 2012}}

Written works

White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Press, 2004) {{ISBN|978-1-59376-425-8}}
Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (Routledge, 2005) {{ISBN|978-0-41595-049-7}}
Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male (Soft Skull Press, 2008) {{ISBN|978-1-59376-207-0}}
{{Cite web|url=http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/137/transcript_137.pdf |title=The Pathology of Privilege: Racism |year=2008 |publisher=Media Education Foundation |access-date=October 9, 2009 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009155847/http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/137/transcript_137.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2009 }}
Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama (City Lights Publishers, 2009) {{ISBN|978-0-87286-500-6}}.
Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (City Lights Publishers, 2010) {{ISBN|978-0-87286-508-2}}.
Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority (City Lights Publishers, 2012) {{ISBN|978-0-87286-521-1}}.
Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich and Sacrificing the Future of America (City Lights Publishers, 2015) {{ISBN|978-0-87286-693-5}}.
Dispatches from the Race War (City Lights Publishers, 2020) {{ISBN|978-0-87286-809-0}}.{{Cite web|url=https://citylights.com/print-culture/book/|title=The Book}}