Posts Tagged ‘imperialism’

Of Broken Clocks, Presidential Candidates, and the Confusion of Certain White Liberals

This commentary is rated MA for mature audiences. It contains some foul language, although honestly, only so much as is needed to get the damned point across. Parental discretion is advised… Attention to all self-proclaimed liberals and progressives. I would like to properly introduce you to a man about whom you’ve heard much — especially [...]

Telling White Lies: Patriotic Correctness and the War on Ethnic Studies

You’re tellin’ white lies You’re tellin’ white lies Well I can see right through that thin disguise Can’t you tell I can tell when you’re telling’ white lies? —Jason and the Scorchers, “White Lies” Forget so-called “political correctness.” In Arizona, there is a far greater threat to free speech and educational integrity — a new [...]

“Why Can’t They Just Say Stop It?” Reflections on Terror and the Cycle of Indifference

I knew it was a conversation that at some point I would have to indulge; and last night, amid commemorative news coverage of the events of September 11, 2001, it became apparent that the time had come. Although I had previously discussed the events of that day and the aftermath of those events with our [...]

Killing One Monster, Unleashing Another: Reflections on Revenge and Revelry

There is a particularly trenchant scene in the documentary film, Robert Blecker Wants Me Dead, in which Blecker — who teaches at New York Law School and is the nation’s most prominent pro-death penalty scholar — travels to Tennessee’s Riverbend Prison for the execution of convicted murderer, Daryl Holton. Blecker is adamant that Holton, who [...]

MLK Day Presentation, 2010 – Fountain Baptist Church, Summit, NJ

Tim Wise delivers a Keynote address for MLK Day, January, 2010 at Fountain Baptist Church, Summit New Jersey. Listen to the speech

The Avatar of Amnesia: Glenn Beck, Historical Memory and the Evil of Right-Wing Populism

There is none so dangerous as the white American who waxes nostalgic about what he or she likes to call “the good old days.” Or, alternately, those “simpler” times, or the era of so-called “innocence” remembered from their childhoods, memorialized in a Norman Rockwell painting, or via televised re-runs of the Cleaver family, or Opie [...]

Farrakhan is Not the Problem: The Arrogance and Absurdity of America’s Racial Litmus Test

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Thirteen years ago, when I first started out on the lecture circuit, speaking about the issue of racism, it seemed as though everywhere I went, someone wanted to know my opinion of Louis Farrakhan. To some extent, this was to be expected, I suppose. It [...]

Of National Lies and Racial Amnesia: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, and the Audacity of Truth

For most white folks, indignation fits about as well as a cardigan sweater accidentally placed in the washer then dried on high heat. Sadly, having long remained silent in the face of (and having even supported) so much injustice over the years in this country — including the genocidal extermination of indigenous persons, the enslavement [...]

Paleness as Pathology: The Future of Racism and Anti-Racism in America

Published in LIP Magazine, www.lipmagazine.org, May, 2006 Writing about the future — in this case, the future of race relations and racial inequality, but in truth about pretty much anything — is never a good idea. To prognosticate about the fate of our fractured society is to invite retrospectives however long from the time of [...]

Frontpage Mag symposium on Ward Churchill, Academic Freedom and the Left

Reposted from FrontPage Friday, March 04, 2005 This is the partial transcript of a debate hosted by the conservative website, FrontpageMag.com, in March, 2005, in which Tim Wise participated. The predominant “narrator” voice is that of a FrontpageMag moderator, Jamie Glazov. Ward Churchill’s vilification of the 9/11 victims “as little Eichmans” crystallized, once again, the [...]