This essay was written originally for CNN.com and can be found here. ______ There’s an old saying that it’s hard to know what you don’t know, the premise being that when you’re ignorant about something, you aren’t likely to realize your blind spots. But I’m not so sure. Sometimes, knowing what you don’t know just […]
My recent appearance on the “Undoing Racism in the Nation’s Cities” panel for the National League of Cities, at the Washington DC Newseum Featuring: Clarence Anthony, CEO, National League of Cities; Karen Freeman-Wilson, Mayor of Gary, Indiana; Tim Wise; Matt Zone, Councilmember, Cleveland, Ohio, and 2nd VP, National League of Cities
So many lies, so little time to bust them all… Lie: As the nation’s schools have become “blacker and browner,” they have become more dangerous and violent. Fact:… Posted by Tim Wise on Sunday, May 24, 2015 Lie: Blacks and Latino/as mostly rely on cash welfare and SNAP (food stamps) for their income, rather than […]
It seems like no exaggeration to suggest that at this moment, a half-century after the greatest victories of the civil rights movement, America is drifting backwards towards apartheid. It’s not a word I use lightly, nor one we are accustomed to using when describing our current condition. Indeed, its not even a word that most […]
As we reflect on this past week’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, hearing the guttural effluent spewing from the mouths of America’s right-wing makes it clear where they would have stood — and where most of their ideological forbears did — a half century ago. Just as the nation’s most […]
And now it’s come to this. I should say, and I quite sincerely mean it, that I have long respected the important analytical and journalistic work done by Bruce Dixon, Margaret Kimberley and everyone associated with Black Agenda Report. I consider BAR among the two or three most valuable left/radical blogs out there, and when […]
My presentation at All Saints Church, Pasadena, CA, 4/28/13, to discuss the normalization of inequality, and the intersectionality of race, sex, class, militarism, terrorism and environmental catastrophe
This is a portion of a larger speech, delivered at an event for service providers and community members, sponsored by the Milwaukee YWCA in 2008. In this segment, I discuss the difference between models of social service provision that are rooted in notions of “charity for” those in need, versus models rooted in “solidarity with” […]
Some things stick with you. I can still recall, vividly in fact, an exchange I had with a woman in one of my audiences seventeen years ago, who had come to my talk at Kansas City Community College: an address in which I examined the intersectionality of racism and heterosexism. The woman, who identified herself […]
As of this coming year, high school students in Philadelphia, PA will be required to take a course in African American history in order to graduate. In a recent column, I lent my support to the new prerequisite, and responded to those who have attacked the plan, most of whom have criticized such a course […]
