Tim Wise

Tim Wise
Born	Timothy Jacob Wise October 4, 1968 (1968-10-04) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Nationality	American
Ethnicity	White
Education	B.A., Political Science
Alma mater	Tulane University
Parents	Michael Julius Wise and LuCinda Anne (McLean) Wise
Website
timwise.org

Timothy Jacob Wise (born October 4, 1968) is an American, anti-racist activist and writer. Since 1995 he has lectured at over 600 college campuses across the US. He has trained teachers, corporate employees, non-profit organizations and law enforcement officers in methods for addressing and dismantling racism in their institutions.

Early life

Wise was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Michael Julius Wise and LuCinda Anne (née McLean) Wise. Wise's mother is of Scottish ancestry and his father is Jewish Wise attended public schools in Nashville, graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1986. In high school he was student body vice-president and a member of one of the top high school debate teams in the United States. Wise attended college at Tulane University in New Orleans and received his B.A. there, with a major in Political Science and a minor in Latin American Studies. 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. He first came to national attention as an anti-apartheid leader 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.

Career

After graduating in 1990, Wise started his work as an anti-racist activist after receiving training in methods for undoing racism from the New Orleans-based People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. Wise began his anti-racism work 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 and Governor of Louisiana in 1990 and 1991, respectively.

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, where he worked as a policy analyst and community organizer in New Orleans public housing.^{[citation needed]}

In 1995, Wise began lecturing around the country on the issues of racism and white privilege and his perceived solutions to them. The following year, he returned to his hometown Nashville, and he continued his work around the US, gaining a national reputation for his work in defense of affirmative action.

From 1999 to 2003, Wise served as an advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute. Wise received the 2002 National Youth Advocacy Coalition's Social Justice Impact Award as well as the 2001 British Diversity Award, for best feature essay on race and diversity issues. He has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including The Montel Williams Show, Donahue, Paula Zahn NOW, MSNBC Live, and ABC's 20/20, arguing the case for affirmative action and to discuss the issue of white privilege and racism in America.

Wise argues that racism in the United States is institutionalized, due to past overt racism and the ongoing effects of that past racism, along with current-day discrimination. Although he concedes that personal, overt bias is less common than in the past (or at least less likely to be openly articulated), Wise argues that institutions have been set up to foster and perpetuate white privilege, and that subtle, impersonal, and even ostensibly race-neutral policies contribute to racism and racial inequality today.

In 2010, Utne Reader magazine listed Wise as one of the "25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World."

Personal life

After living in New Orleans for ten years, Wise relocated to his native Nashville in 1996. In 1998, he married Kristy Cason. Together they have two daughters: Ashton (b. 2001) and Rachel (b. 2003).

Written works

• White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Press, 2004)
• Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White (Routledge, 2005)
• Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male (Soft Skull Press, 2008)
• Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama (City Lights Publishers, 2009) ISBN 978-0872865006.
• Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (City Lights Publishers, 2010) ISBN 978-0872865082.
• Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority (City Lights Publishers, 2012) ISBN 9780872865211.

Video releases

In addition to books and essays Wise has produced a DVD titled On White Privilege: Racism, White Denial & the Costs of Inequality and a double-CD entitled The Audacity of Truth: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.

External links

• Official website
• Tim Wise at the Internet Movie Database