In this spirited debate hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, held on December 5, 2006, Tim Wise and Ward Connerly debate the question, “Is Affirmative Action Good for America?” Watch the video
My debate with Ward Connerly on affirmative action, at the University of Pennsylvania, from December 2006
Consider a few things that have happened in the past month-and-a-half, in no particular order: First, comedian Michael Richards goes on a racist tirade at an L.A. comedy club, screaming the n-word at two black audience members, over and again for several minutes. Then, white students at four entirely different colleges dress up in blackface […]
To paraphrase a line from the movie “Forrest Gump”–which film I never liked much, actually–“E-mail is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” And here, I’m referring not so much to the bevy of ads for porn or weight loss remedies that seem to sneak through whatever spam filter I […]
“What about Oprah?” So came the question from the middle of the crowded lecture hall, spat out from a contorted face whose owner had just sat through an hour-long talk, the substance of which I can only imagine he had found excruciating. Needing a bit more information before I could confidently respond, I replied the […]
Published on Civilrights.org, July 25, 2006 According to a poll taken late last year, the overwhelming majority of whites in the U.S. reject the idea that Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath tell us anything important about race in America (1). Blacks, not surprisingly, feel otherwise. Thus has emerged the latest manifestation of an intergenerational process: […]
Published on Black Commentator.com, July 13, 2006 Dear Sheriff Strain, I always liked Slidell, even before Lucinda Williams sang about going there to “look for (her) joy.” And my fond feelings for the town were rekindled recently when I discovered that Grayson Capps–with whom I went to Tulane in the late ’80s, and who’s quite […]
Published as a ZNet Daily Commentary, July 7, 2006 It seems as though whenever black folks do something wrong, everyone hears about it. If gang violence heats up in America’s inner cities, for example, you can bet it’ll be front-page news. Unacceptably high dropout rates? Yep, you can read all about it, and even hear […]
Published on The Black Commentator.com, July 6, 2006 Two pieces in my local paper today served as clear reminders of the adage that there is more than one side to every story. So too, they confirmed the wisdom–however much maligned it may be by some–that truth is often contingent upon one’s perspective, rather than being […]
Published on Counterpunch.org, May 30, 2006 According to a recent survey, more Americans can name the characters from The Simpsons, than can recall the rights protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In fact, while roughly one in five Americans could name the Simpsons characters, only one in a thousand could name all […]
