Tim Wise Interview

Earlier this year City Lights published his latest, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Race and Whiteness in the age of Obama, which debunks the idea that we live in a “postracial society”.

White privilege is any advantage, head start, or protection the system grants whites but not people of color.

There is probably a human tendency to favor those who are more like oneself.

Racism as Tim Wise describes it, “is an ideology that says certain people , by virtue of their race, are either inferior or superior to others of a different race, with race usually being defined by skin color. Like any word that ends in “-ism” – capitalism, communism, socialism -- racism is a system as well as an ideology. It’s a way of organizing society.” This can be seen in America today by the fact that there are extensively more opportunities for whites than people of color in areas such as; employment, education, housing and politics. Although racism has become less of an issue than it was 50 years ago it is still apparent but in a more subtle way.

One of the main ways that racism can be seen today is in the way that criticism falls more heavily on a colored person than a white person in the same circumstance. Tim Wise describes this concept as, “Privilege also takes the form of less pressure to perform… We whites are able to be as incompetent or mediocre as we want and never have our mediocrity ascribed to our race.” Examples of this can be seen when a colored child is scrutinized more than that of a white child when they do not succeed in an educational setting. Because of this double standard people of color have to work that much harder to prevent the criticisms placed on them.

Throughout American history racism has always been present, despite the efforts to eliminate it, it still exists today. Racism can be as subconscious as assuming that a black person is more athletically gifted than any other race. Wise discusses this issue by stating, “We don’t consciously believe in racial superiority or inferiority, but we’ve become so used to the existing policies, practices, and procedures that we don’t question them.” Racism has run rampant in today’s society to the point that we are no longer affected by a racist comment. It’s to the point where these comments don’t even impact us in the way they should.