Posted by
Bullpen on Saturday, June 21, 2008 12:30:12 AM
A few months ago, I attended what was described as “An Evening With Tim Wise”, a commentary on racial divides in the United States. Mr. Wise is a self-described “anti-racist” who crusades against the perceptions of “White America” and “white privilege.”
An “anti-racist” indeed. Tim Wise is a man who makes money victimizing other groups of people. From my perspective. Mr. Wise made a few valid points, but I failed to hear any solutions Mr. Wise offered. In other words, he appeared to only want people to use it as an excuse and a crutch. I am not saying everything that Mr. Wise said was wrong, but it is rare to hear someone be this wrong this many times in an hour and a half. Mr. Wise had some excellent points on the legal system’s treatment of blacks, but failed to focus enough attention on it. He instead went to political issues and generalizations about a mythical modern group known as “White America.”
Mr. Wise spoke of the 1960’s as if he experienced them (he was born in 1968). He misrepresented the Hurricane Katrina aftermath as a racial problem rather than a governmental mismanagement problem. The leadership of New Orleans the past 20 or 30 years has been black leadership, which again is something he failed to note for convenience. He noted Klan leader David Duke’s rise in Louisiana politics(he was never elected) and failed to note that Bobby Jindal (a dark skinned Indian American) was elected Governor of that state last year. He brought up Jeremiah Wright’s anger but focused the attention on race when the issue with what he said was actually patriotism. Illegal immigration is a problem not because of racism, but because of the issue of human rights, sovereignty, national interests, and crime. Time and time again, Mr. Wise decided to victimize people who have the opportunity to rise above their circumstances and ignored and failed to address potential counterarguments.
It was almost as if Tim Wise wanted there to be more racism for his own purposes than what actually exists. His generalizations, quotes, and style would leave you to believe there was no progress made, that the United States was an inherently racially ignorant place that lacked equality. In fact, today there are less racial divides in the United States than in any other country in the world.
That is not to say there are not competing groups of interest left in the United States that should not be talked about, but to claim that the problems in this country are down to white against black, brown, and yellow as Mr. Wise so unwisely decided to do is downright irresponsible and ignorant. Looking at everything face value is exactly what is what causes racism in the first place. Our country is made up of so many cross-cutting groups that I found a simple black versus white argument of the world today to be insulting. (Warning, Jesse Jackson style ironic rant to follow) Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, moderates, preachers, teachers, bleacher creatures, people without sharp features, homosexuals, bisexuals, heterosexuals, transsexuals, adults, children, elders, teenagers, anorexics, dyslexics, managers, workers, fat people, fit people, skinny people, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, atheists, women, men, mixed races, Europeans, Africans, Australians, veterans, and civilians are just some of the divides in our country. Yet, our failure to see people as individuals and Americans is why we have racial issues in the first place.
Toward the end, Mr. Wise spoke of repaying debts for our past mistakes as a people as if society were a business. But it is not a business. History is not something we can go back and do over. It is something we have to learn from and move forward with equality of opportunity, something that Mr. Wise failed to acknowledge is available to everyone in our great country. Sure, problems still exist and need to be discussed, but Mr. Wise’s style and selections of racism are nothing more than reverse racism.