Under the Affluence

Tim Wise: Constantly on tour, Tim Wise is one of the most prominent anti-racist essayists, educators and activists in the US. He is regularly interviewed by CNN, Tavis Smiley, Tom Joyner and Michael Eric Dyson. His essays are regularly published on Alternet, Counterpunch, Z-net, Black Commentator, the Black Agenda Report and the Daily Kos. His blog is widely followed at www.timwise.org

• IntroductionI.Pulling Apart: The States of Disunited AmericaJoblessness and Underemployment in Post-Recession AmericaPoverty, Wage Stagnation and Deprivation Amid “Recovery”Income and Wealth Inequality: Long-Term Trends and Current RealitiesDeflection on the Right: But What About Mobility?Deflection on the Right: The False Promise of GrowthDeflection on the Right: Blaming Changing Family StructureDeflection on the Right (and Left): Is Education the Key to the Inequality Problem?Why the Current Trend Lines? What’s Behind Growing Inequality in America?Some Final Words About Race and the Economic CrisisII.Resurrecting Scrooge: Rhetoric and Policy of the Culture of CrueltyDemonizing the Poor: Understanding Past as PrologueThe Reformation: From Social Gospel to the New Deal and BeyondBashing the War on Poverty: The Presumption of Failure, The Reality of SuccessVictim-Blaming, Poverty Shaming and Culture Defaming in Modern AmericaThe Rhetoric of Hate: Dehumanizing and Humiliating the ImpoverishedTrivializing Hardship: Conservatives as Poverty DeniersWelfare Dependence and the Culture of Poverty: America’s Zombie LieThe Real Reasons for Unemployment, Poverty and WelfareLoving the 1 Percent: The Valorization of the Rich and PowerfulMakers v. Takers: Taxes, Public Subsidies and the Real Face of EntitlementNo, You Didn’t Build That: Confronting the Myth of Elite TalentA Culture of Parasitic Affluence: Examining the Inverted Values of the RichWith Justice for None: The Implications of a Culture of CrueltyIII.Fostering a Culture of CompassionHow Did We Get Here? The Importance of Seeing the Roadblocks ClearlySomething Old : The Myth of MeritocracySomething New: The Centrality of Racism and White ResentmentBeyond Facts: The Importance of StorytellingSome Things are Non-negotiable: A Vision of JusticeEndnotesIndexAbout the Author

"Tim Wise is a truth-teller and long distance freedom-fighter. He is my vanilla brother whose fight against White Supremacy is exemplary and inspiring!"--Cornel West "[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, author of Yo' Mama's Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America "Tim Wise has produced an eloquent, meticulously researched book that could make economic inequality a central issue in the 2016 presidential election. The book I can best compare it to is Michael Harrington's The Other America which helped inspire 'The War On Poverty.' Written in passionate prose, invoking honored American traditions, it has the power to change minds and melt hearts. I look forward to sharing it with my students, and with anyone else concerned with justice and equity"--Mark Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University and author of White Boy: A Memoir and Badass Teachers Unite! "America 'under the affluence' is a cruel and heartless place. By word and by deed, we turn against the poor and feast on a diet of resentment and myths. If anyone can unpack the racist and patriarchal lies that undergird our current culture of cruelty, Tim Wise can. In clear, simple language, product of a lifetime of research, he describes how we got here and how we might build a more compassionate place. We need his voice."--Laura Flanders, host of GritTV with Laura Flanders "A single image--watching the Super Bowl under conditions like our distribution of wealth--is worth the price of Under the Affluence. Most of us are dying, crushed because we're stacked 50 in a seat, while the 1% ... But read it for yourself. Wise has spent many hours reading what the Right has written to dehumanize poor people, so you don't have to! He humanizes them back, using real evidence."--James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me and Sundown Towns. "Acclaimed inequality essayist and community activist Wise (Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority, 2012, etc.) reports on the damage being incurred in America whereby 'the have-nots and have-lessers are dehumanized while the elite are venerated.' In describing how modern society has become a 'culture of cruelty,' as past attempts to sympathize and support those less fortunate have collapsed beneath the weight of classism and racism, the author explores the framework and the consequences of the nation's economic crisis. He lucidly ponders its genesis as well as the ramifications of wealth inequality, including the rampant demonization of the poor and the valorization of the rich by way of what he refers to as 'Scroogism.' Wise's extensive experience as an anti-racism activist and a longtime member of the radical left greatly informs his text, which demonstrates, through facts and case histories, that America's enduring racial divide continues to be directly tied to its economic problems. His well-rounded scholarly discussion benefits from the varying intellectual perspectives he offers, including opinions on the damaging effects of blind corporate obeisance to the 'myth of meritocracy.' What is apparent, he believes, is the need for solutions to achieve the kind of 'culture of compassion' necessary for true redemption and a dismantling of social stratification. Wise recognizes that this achievement is a tall order to fill, particularly in the presence of the current elite economic oligarchy possessing the capital and the influence to trounce equalization efforts. Sharp and provocative ... the book concludes with hope that his analysis and those like it will spur a counter-narrative outwardly challenging the false notion that both the wealthy and the poor 'deserve' their places within our culture's economic stratum. An impassioned, intellectual, and vigorously dense report on the repercussions of severe socioeconomic imbalance in the United States."--Kirkus Reviews "Under the Affluence is an important source of data--bubbling over with hard, footnoted facts--to strengthen readers' resolve against the escalating inequalities in the United States ... the book is an essential compendium of numbers, one that will prove useful in strategizing to end inequality and arming readers with the facts they need to tackle these seemingly intractable problems. Overall, the book is an impassioned and heartfelt defense of the poor that is rooted in the idea that America can, as Wise says, 'crawl from under the affluence to a place more equitable.'"-Eleanor J. Bader, RH Reality Check