Dispatches from the Race War

Tim Wise, whom scholar and philosopher Cornel West calls, "A vanilla brother in the tradition of (abolitionist) John Brown," is among the nation's most prominent antiracist essayists and educators. He has spent the past 25 years speaking to audiences throughout North America, on over 1000 college and high school campuses, at hundreds of conferences, and to community groups across the nation about methods for dismantling racism.Wise's antiracism work traces back to his days as a college activist in the 1980s, fighting for divestment from (and economic sanctions against) apartheid South Africa. After graduation, he threw himself into social justice efforts full-time, as a Youth Coordinator and Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism: the largest of the many groups organized in the early 1990s to defeat the political candidacies of white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. From there, he became a community organizer in New Orleans' public housing, and a policy analyst for a children's advocacy group focused on combatting poverty and economic inequity. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Smith College School of Social Work, in Northampton, MA., and from 1999-2003 was an advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute in Nashville, TN.Wise is the author of seven previous books, including Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority, Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich and Sacrificing the Future of America and has been featured in several documentaries, including "The Great White Hoax: Donald Trump and the Politics of Race and Class in America," and "White Like Me: Race, Racism and White Privilege in America." Wise is one of five persons—including President Barack Obama—interviewed for a video exhibition on race relations in America, featured at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.His media presence includes dozens of appearances on CNN, MSNBC and NPR, feature interviews on ABC’s 20/20 and CBS’s 48 Hours, as well as videos posted on YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms that have received over 20 million views. His podcast, "Speak Out with Tim Wise," features bi-weekly interviews with activists, scholars and artists about movement building and strategies for social change.

• Dispatches from the Race War: Table of ContentsPreface: Racism and Inequality in a Time of Illness and UprisingIntroduction: America’s Longest War I. POST-RACIAL BLUES: RACE AND REALITY IN THE OBAMA YEARSGood, Now Back to Work: The meaning (and limits) of the Obama victoryDenial is a River Wider than the Charles: Implicit bias and the burden of blackness in the age of ObamaHarpooning the Great White Wail: Reflections on racism and right-wing buffooneryImagine for a Moment: Protest, privilege, and the power of whitenessIf it Walks Like a Duck and Talks Like a Duck: Racism and the death of respectable conservatismBullying Pulpit: The problematic politics of personal responsibilityNo Innocence Left to Kill:Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, and coming of age in an unjust nationKilling One Monster, Unleashing Another: Reflections on revenge and revelry in AmericaYou Will Know Them by the Eyes of Their Whites: Ferguson and white denial II. TRUMPISM AND THE POLITICS OF PREJUDICEDiscovering the Light in Darkness: Donald Trump and the future of AmericaReeking City on a Dung Heap: The dangerous worldview of Donald TrumpPatriotism Is for Black People: Colin Kaepernick and the politics of protestIf It’s a Civil War, Pick a Side: Charlottesville and the meaning of TrumpismMaking a Murderer (Politically Profitable): Immigration and hysteria in TrumplandiaRacist Is too Mild a Term: The President is a white nationalistThe Face of American Terrorism Is WhiteWeaponized Nostalgia: The evil genius of Donald Trump III.   2020 VISION—AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS?Americanism is a Pandemic’s BFF: Why the U.S. has been so vulnerable to COVID-19It’s Not a Death Cult, It’s a Mass Murder Movement: The homicidal indifference of MAGA nation Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud: COVID and Trumpism reveal America’s true virusBad Will Hunting: The killing of Ahmaud Arbery and the rituals of white supremacyThis Bias is Not Implicit: The problem isn’t fear, it’s contempt for black humanityIt’s not the Apples, It’s the Orchard: Police violence is neither new nor rareViolence Never Works? America Would Beg to DifferNobody’s Perfect—So Why Do We Need Black People to Be? Demanding angelic victims of police violence is absurd IV. CONFRONTING WHITE DENIAL, DEFLECTION, AND FRAGILITYWhite Denial Is as American as Apple PieWhat, Me Racist? Understanding why your intentions are not the pointWeaponizing Appalachia: Race, class and the art of white deflectionChicago Is Not a Punch Line (or an Alibi): White deflection and black-on-black crimeIdentity Politics Are Not the Problem, Identity-Based Oppression IsFarrakhan Is Not the Problem: Exploring the appeal of white America’s bogeymanYou May Not Be Racist but Your Ideology Is: Why modern conservatism is racistWho’s the Snowflake Now? White fragility in a time of turmoil V. MIS-REMEMBER WHEN: RACE AND AMERICAN AMNESIA Dream Interrupted: The sanitizing of Martin Luther King Jr.Holocaust Denial, American-StyleHistory, Memory, and the Implicit Racism of Right-Wing MoralizingEurope Didn’t Send Their Best Either: Immigration and the lies we tell about America (and ourselves)Racism Is Evil but Not Un-AmericanMAGA Is a Slur and Your Hat Is HatefulStatues Make Good Rubble: An open letter to my fellow Southerners VI.   ARMED WITH A LOADED FOOTNOTE: DEBUNKING THE RIGHTCheap White Whine: Debunking reverse discrimination and white victimhoodRationalizing Unequal Policing: Exposing the right’s war on justiceHey Conservatives, Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings Either: Debunking the lie of welfare dependenceBaby Mama Drama: Debunking the Black Out-of-Wedlock Birth Rate CrisisDebunking the Model Minority Myth: Using Asian Americans as pawns in a white gameIntelligence and Its Discontents: Debunking IQ and the absurdity of race scienceNazis Make Lousy Researchers: Debunking the myth of Jewish power VII.      WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?Not Ready to Make Nice: The fallacy of outreach and understandingChecking Privilege (While Not Being an Asshole)Spreading Solidarity in Pandemic TimesCoalition building in a post-corona America“Listen to Black People” is Completely Correct and Entirely Insufficient: Amplifying Black voices does not mean refusing to use our own       Taking Personal Responsibility Seriously: Rejecting white saviorism and embracing allyshipForget STEM, We Need MESH: Civics education and the future of AmericaWho’s Afraid of De-Policing? Why a radical sounding idea isn’t as crazy as you thinkHope Is a Noun, Justice Is a Verb, and Nouns are Not Enough   About the Author

Praise for Tim Wise's Dispatches from the Race War"The volume appears at a post-Trump time when it may actually be possible to begin redressing centuries of legitimate Black grievances.  It behooves the serious attention of anyone, of any racial or ethnic background, for whom fighting racism is a top personal and political priority."—Paul Von Blum, ScheerPost"Through clear examples, inscrutable logic, and the power of direct language, Wise challenges White Americans to identify and understand the racism inscribed in the very American project and in the everyday acts of 'being American.'"—Romi Mahajan, Countercurrents" . . . shares some of the clearest, most honest thinking about racism, inequality, and white privilege that you are ever likely to hear from a white man. 'Can we just put aside all the rationalizations and deflections to which we reflexively pivot and instead imagine what it must feel like to walk through life having to always think about how to behave so as not to scare white people, or so as not to trigger our contempt?’ he asks."—Joseph Barbato, NY Journal of BooksPraise for Tim Wise"Tim Wise is a vanilla brother in the tradition of John Brown . . . "—Cornel West"One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation. He is a national treasure."—Michael Eric Dyson"(Wise's) work is revolutionary, and those who react negatively are simply afraid of hearing the truth . . . "—Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of History, University of South­ern California"Tim Wise is one of the few people, along with perhaps Frederick Douglass, who has ever really spoken honestly and forcefully to white people about themselves . . . "—Charles Ogletree, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Di­rector, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice"The fate of this country depends on whites like yourself speaking the truth to those who don’t want to hear it. In this, you are as one with the Biblical prophets. You are more likely to be condemned than lauded, and yet your words are no less important. So, keep speaking out. At the very least, some future archeologists sifting through the ashes of this civilization may be able to find evidence that there were some who offered truth as a cure for the disease that destroyed us."—Derrick Bell, Professor of Law, New York University"(His) is the clearest thinking on race I’ve seen in a long while written by a white writer . . . right up there with the likes of historians Howard Zinn and Herb Aptheker as far as I’m concerned."—Dr. Joyce King, Benjamin Mays Endowed Chair for Urban Teaching, Learning and Leadership, Georgia State University"Sparing neither family nor self . . . he considers how the deck has always been stacked in his and other white people's favor . . . His candor is invigorating."—Publishers Weekly