Tim Wise: Challenging the Myths of Post-Racial America

Introduction and Event Context

• Dr. Luis Paredes, the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Stetson University, introduced the event.
• The lecture is sponsored by the Cross Cultural Center and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement.
• The university emphasizes its vision as an institution of "inclusive excellence" where diversity is a celebrated strength and learning from social-cultural power dynamics is encouraged.
• The guest speaker, Tim Wise, is introduced as a prominent anti-racism activist with a background reaching back to the $1980s$.
• Key biographical details for Tim Wise:
  • Began activism as a college student fighting for divestment and economic sanctions against apartheid South Africa.
  • Served as the youth coordinator and associate director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism to defeat the political candidacy of David Duke (former KKK leader).
  • Community organizer in New Orleans public housing and policy analyst for children's advocacy against poverty.
  • Adjunct professor at Smith College School of Social Work (Northampton, Massachusetts).
  • Advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute in Nashville, Tennessee from $1999$ to $2003$.

Introductory Remarks by Tim Wise

• Wise notes it has been $11$ years since his last visit to Stetson University.
• He jokes about his previous visit, where a small group of students (specifically the women's softball team) were forced to read his book as punishment for a racist incident on campus.
• He acknowledges that many students are likely present for "extra credit," which he labels as "academic bribery," but welcomes the attendance regardless of the motivation.
• Wise urges the audience to listen and commit to thinking, specifically emphasizing the importance of following the lead of people of color when creating racial equity.

The Myth of a "Post-Racial" Society

• Wise critiques the notion that the United States is "post-racial" due to having a person of color as President for nearly $8$ years.
• He uses international analogies to debunk the idea that individual success equals the end of systemic issues:
  • The election of Margaret Thatcher in England did not mean the end of sexism.
  • The election of Benazir Bhutto (twice) in Pakistan did not mean the end of patriarchy or rape culture.
• He argues that individual accomplishment does not reflect systemic, structural, or institutional truths for the majority of a demographic.

The Danger of Silence Regarding Racism

• Wise addresses the argument that "talking about racism keeps racism alive."
• He rejects this logic using several comparisons:
  • Blaming the conversation for the problem is like blaming a speedometer for a speeding ticket; the speedometer merely transmits information about an existing reality.
  • If talking about world hunger were the cause of starvation, silence would miraculously produce food.

Barrier 1: The Refusal to Accept Personal Racial Bias

• Most people believe they are personally colorblind and that racism is only a problem for "other people."
• People often cite personal connections to people of color (the "I have black friends" defense) as proof of lack of bias.
• Statistical Critique of the "Black Friends" Argument:
  • A survey found that $75\%$ of white Americans ($142,000,000$ people) claimed to have "many" black friends (defined as $4$ or more).
  • At the time, there were only $35,000,000$ black people in the U.S., and half of them reported having zero white friends.
  • Mathematically, there were not enough black people ($17.5 \times 10^{6}$ available) for that many white people to actually have that many black friends.
• Subliminal Bias and the "Rule of 12":
  • Subliminal response study: Researchers flashed images of black male faces for $85\,ms$ (subliminal threshold). Even in "nice white liberal" subjects, the amygdala (fear/anxiety center) lit up, followed by the executive function attempting to regulate the irrational response.
  • Advertising/Marketing analogy: The "Rule of $12$" suggests that after seeing a message $12$ times, an individual is exponentially more likely to buy a product (e.g., the Taco Bell Breakfast Crunchwrap).
  • Comparison: If marketing can sell a product no one asked for through repetition, constant societal racial stereotypes effectively condition even the most progressive individuals.
• Anecdote: The Morgan Freeman Story:
  • Wise's daughters (ages $5$ and $7$ at the time) saw a trailer for "Evan Almighty" featuring Morgan Freeman as God.
  • His $7$-year-old daughter insisted Morgan Freeman could not be God because "God is white."
  • Though Wise’s home lacked racialized religious imagery, his child had internalized white-centric depictions of the divine from broader society (e.g., the "Garden of Sweden" style illustrations in Children's Bibles found at pediatrician offices).

Barrier 2: The Failure to See Systemic Racism

• Systemic racism involves policies and practices that reinforce inequality regardless of individual intent.
• Personal Schooling Anecdote:
  • Wise attended Nashville public schools starting in $1974$, the year they truly integrated.
  • In $5\text{th}$ grade, a teacher (Mrs. Crownover) gave him a $D-$ in reading purely because of his social circle (black friends) and his affinity for early hip-hop culture.
  • While Mrs. Crownover was eventually removed, Wise notes the system itself continued her work by placing almost all white students into honors tracks and black students into remedial tracks regardless of merit.
• Education Disparities Data:
  • Students of color are $\frac{1}{2}$ as likely to be placed in AP or honors classes compared to white students.
  • White students are $2 \times$ as likely to have the most experienced teachers.
  • Black and Latino students are $2 \times, 3 \times$, or $4 \times$ more likely to be suspended or expelled, despite data from $14$ studies showing rule infraction rates (drugs, weapons) are virtually identical across races.

Barrier 3: The Refusal to Acknowledge Historical Impact

• There is a common demand for people of color to "get over" the past, yet Wise argues that inertia is a property of the political and economic universe.
• Venerating the Past:
  • White Americans often love the past when it makes them feel good (e.g., Revolutionary War costumes/Tea Party rallies, July $4\text{th}$, or slogans like "Make America Great Again").
• Housing and Redlining:
  • Story: Wise's daughter asked why a neighborhood was all black and poor. Her older sister answered with "redlining."
  • Redlining (legal until the Fair Housing Act of $1968$): Banks used red markers to outline black neighborhoods and deny all loans (mortgages, business) regardless of individual credit or status.
  • Public housing was originally created for white people; the FHA, VA, and GI bill later subsidized white people to move to suburbs while preventing people of color from doing the same.
  • Urban Renewal: From $1950$ to $1970$, $1 \text{ in } 5$ black-occupied housing units was demolished for interstates and economic development.
• Wealth Disparities:
  • On average, white families have $15 \times$ the net worth of black families and $13 \times$ the net worth of Latino families.

Law Enforcement and "Black Lives Matter"

• Modern policing traces back to slave patrols—working-class white men on horseback protecting the property of the rich by controlling black populations.
• Statistics of injustice:
  • Police are $21 \times$ more likely to kill young black men than white men.
  • Black people are $2 \times$ as likely to be stopped/searched for drugs, yet white people are more likely to have drugs when searched.
  • While drug use/sale rates are equal or higher among white people, black and Latino people make up $85\% \text{ to } 90\%$ of drug-related incarcerations.
  • Wall Street fraud involving $\$12.5 \text{ trillion}$ (roughly $20\%$ of the nation’s net worth) resulted in zero jail time, whereas food stamp fraud is heavily prosecuted.
• Implicit Meaning of the Phrase:
  • "Black Lives Matter" is a proclamation of what has been historically ignored. It is not an assertion that black lives are worth more.
  • Analogy: To respond "All Lives Matter" to "Black Lives Matter" is as irrelevant as telling an HIV/AIDS activist in the $1980s$ that "people die of pancreatic cancer too."

Misremembering Immigration History

• Criticism of the obsession with the southern border:
  • The border is artificial, created after a war of false pretenses where the U.S. took half of Mexico's land.
  • Many Mexican families were in the region before white American families.
• The "Legal Entry" Myth:
  • For many European ancestors, there were no laws to break at the time of entry.
  • European immigrants generally did not leave as "winners" of Europe; the winners stayed in their mansions. The "losers" (starving, poor, criminals sold into indentured servitude) were the ones who got on the boat.
  • They did not come for "liberty" (the early colonies were often oppressive, hanging "witches" and religious dissenters); they came for "stuff" (land and opportunity).

Conclusion: Guilt vs. Responsibility

• The Gumbo Pot Metaphor:
  • In $1990$, Wise lived in a communal house at $1805$ Robert Street with $9$ other people. Rent was $\$525 \text{ total}$ ($\$52.50 \text{ per person}$).
  • A roommate made a pot of gumbo, didn't save any, and left the dirty pot on the stove for days.
  • It eventually grew foul, but Wise initially refused to clean it because he wasn't the one who "made the mess."
  • By the time it had sat for $36.5$ hours, it had become a biological hazard that woke him up with its stench.
• The Moral:
  • It eventually didn't matter who made the mess. The only thing that mattered was that Wise had to live in the nastiness.
  • Anti-racism is not about white guilt (which Wise calls useless); it is about taking responsibility to clean up a societal mess we did not personally create because we are the only ones left to do it.