Whenever I get the opportunity to address a group of black youths or counsel a black male one-on-one, I always impress upon them two truths in our society, which I tell them never to forget. The first is: you are not white. This may seem obvious, but we have come to think of ourselves as being “the same” as our white friends and co-workers. We are fed the lines… and most of us have come to believe it, even on a subconscious level… that “colour doesn’t matter”, “we’re all the same”, “if we cut we all bleed red”, “blah blah blah”. The second truth, which flows from the first, is that: the colour of your skin matters. It matters in how you are perceived, accepted and treated. This may also seem obvious, but again on a subconscious level, we expect to be treated “fair”-ly by society, that is, “the same” as our “fair”-skinned brothers and sisters.
It is because of these two truths why I am not very sympathetic nor supportive, when black people complain that they are not being treated “the same” (there’s that term again) as white people when they do illegal, unethical or just plain dumb shit. For me the issue isn’t the fact that the white person would get probation for the same crime that a black person is getting 5 years in jail. Nor the fact that a Barry Bonds is being vilified for using steroids, while a Mark McGwire is now a hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. The point is that they shouldn’t have been doing what they knew was wrong in the first place and once they got caught, they should know and expect that they won’t be treated “the same” (there’s that term again) as the white person… or let’s say “fair”-ly. Let me ask this: “when have we ever been treated ”fair”-ly… whether it is for the good or the bad that we’ve done?” So why are you expecting it now!? White boys caught doing drugs are seen as going through an “experimental phase”. Black boys caught doing drugs are seen as “drug fiends”. This is our real world, not one of our imagination.
Which all gets me to Tim Wise. The blogosphere, as well as the afrosphere, are all abuzz about his article, “Imagine: Protest, Insurgency and the Workings of White Privilege”. In it he argues that if black people did the same crazy, ignorant, obnoxious, reprehensible, racist, illegal or just plain dumb shit that some white people do, then we’d be perceived and treated differently. That’s it. That’s his theory. Well any black child in grade 3 could tell you that black people are treated differently than white people, although maybe not in a self-righteous pseudo-intellectual essay. However for this insight, Wise is given accolades, much props and worshipped as a prophet of enlightenment.
The problem I have with his treatise is that he is working from the premise that black people and white people are “the same” (there’s that term again), so given the opportunity black people would be likely to act just like them. The issue isn’t to “imagine” what would happen if black folks decided to arm themselves with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition, and then descended upon Capital Hill or the White House calling for revolution. The reality is that there are countless guns and ammunition in the black community already, which we’re using to exterminate each other, so in time there won’t be enough black people left standing to call for any kind of revolution. The issue isn’t to “imagine” how black folks would be perceived if they acted like the “Tea Party” and took to the streets to express their anger at the government and organize politically to achieve their agenda. The reality is the apathy and lack of urgency among black folks to take to the streets of Washington to demand that their government also look after their collective interests, like it did for big business.
Listen I get his act and I’m not hating (although it may sound like it). It’s all about marketing and Tim Wise has been able to market himself as the embodiment of white guilt. In a previous post, “Stuff White People Like”, I explained that there are the “Tim Wise” types… white people who make their living pimping diversity workshops and anti-racism seminars, as well as hustling their books, cds, dvds and t-shirts… and we get dazzled and follow along mindlessly… again.
America is about capitalism, which means also capitalizing on others pain, fears, sufferings and weaknesses. Marketing works because it appeals to our weaknesses, not our strengths… and we, “black folk”, have a weakness for the white guilty liberal male. We graciously give them the platform so that they can feel privileged to speak to our pain, to rage against the injustices we experience… be it yesterday, today and tomorrow. We celebrated them for confessing to the guilt that they are privileged to feel, due to the “fair”-ness of their skins. Of course (and here’s the irony), all for the privilege of paying the price of admission to hear them lecture on this, their area of expertise… and also to buy their merchandise.
Imagine that.
As for black people expecting to be treated equally, for bad or good things we do, I think the evidence shows that it aint gonna happen. So there’s no point in hanging in limbo waiting for it.
As for Tim Wise, I would say it’s good if white racists are accepting what he’s preaching and working to rid themselves of racism and become fully human.
But even in the link, someone was ranting that black people have it good, they are able to call million man marches and white people cant. So I wonder if they will ever accept it (that theyre racist and its wrong). I think they get it but refuse to acknowledge it. It’s like Goldman Sachs on the senate panel ducking and dodging and laughing to the bank.
I think if we black folks expect an acknowledgement of white racism from those racists, then we are kidding ourselves. Its like we’re waiting for some kind of “closure”. It wont happen. So what do we do, even in the face of this moral, cultural, and ethical backward slide thats happening with many of our white brethren? Waiting for an apology and an acknowledgement from them of being wrong after lo these many centuries aint gonna get it. Do we black folks need that apology to progress?
Great post!
“I think they get it but refuse to acknowledge it.”
Anna, I believe that’s it exactly. On the flip side though, I also don’t trust the so-called liberal and progressive white people who claim that they get it and acknowledge it. I’am not saying that they’re lying and/or not being sincere on an individual basis, but within the dominant culture’s collective mindset, do they matter, do they have any real influence? And what’s their objective or agenda when they join into our struggles? Let’s just be cognizant of who is really benefitting from these alliances.
To quote Public Enemy: “Beware of the hand that’s coming from the left, just watch you’re step, don’t truss it!”
Brother Asabagna,don’t try AK47:-( let’s have a global Black People congress, united politically, economically to secure and protect the interests of our People wherever they are,Bro!Similar to Aipac lobby group, we (Black People) can unite for ever!
Yeaaah, Booooyyy! Word!
I came through from a link left in the comments on Wise’s article. And I have a question for you, because I am truly confused. Would you prefer white people to NOT acknowledge or work to educated other white people about the continuing problem of racism in America? And if so, why? I don’t know Tim Wise, and I don’t know you. So, I can’t really say what his motivations are, or what you really think of him. But I do not think he was writing “to black people.” I’m pretty sure he knows that people of color get it. I believe he was writing to the many, many white people who do not get it. DO. NOT. GET. IT. And I think he wrote this particular article ( the only one of his I’ve read) in a way that will be meaningful to a lot of people who are both white and good people, but who are not educated about the issue of racism. And you know, there’s a lot of those people! So, I’m confused about the role you would like to see white people play in trying to close the gap. Sincerely. And I would like to hear more about that.
Thanks!
Howdy Maggie and welcome!
You ask some interesting questions and make some relevant points, so I will do my best to guide you through your admitted confusion.
“Would you prefer white people to NOT acknowledge or work to educated other white people about the continuing problem of racism in America?”
The simple and honest answer is that I don’t care what white people do or not do… especially for each other. In the long run, it ain’t gonna help none of us black folk! It may ease your conscience and may motivate you to… I don’t know… have an “ethnic pot luck” at work to show that you appreciate soul food. Just as you believe Tom Wise is speaking to white people, I am speaking to Black people here in this post. My message to them is that Tim Wise isn’t so “wise”… there’s nothing enlightening about him or what he preaches. My message to them is that what he’s actually doing is hustling the white people you speak of, with his anti-racist, anti-white privilege, pro-white guilt seminars and merchandise. My message to them is that what he’s actually doing is making a living off our pain and struggles… so don’t believe (and fall) for his hype.
You state that you believe Tim Wise “was writing to the many, many white people who do not get it. DO. NOT. GET. IT. And I think he wrote this particular article (the only one of his I’ve read) in a way that will be meaningful to a lot of people who are both white and good people, but who are not educated about the issue of racism.”
Really!? Are there really white people… many many white people (as you claim), who don’t “GET” that there is racism in our society today? They don’t “GET” that America (and Canada where I live), was built and is maintained by a system of white supremacy? They don’t “GET” that black people are treated differently than white people… WORLDWIDE!? If they don’t “GET” that, then I’d argue that they don’t want to “GET” it… or they’re either little children or fools… then it becomes God’s responsibility to take care of them.
If it’s true what I’ve been told by all the “white and good people” I have met over the years: that they’re not racists, that they were brought up to see everybody regardless of skin colour as “the same” (there’s that term again), and that’s what they now teach their kids. If this was really true or even relevant, then racism should be dead today or at least dying out. Instead, in this so-called “post-racial society”, racism is not only alive and well, but it’s on the rise! Come to think of it, maybe you’re right and they don’t “GET” it. The “white and good people” that is.
Finally you ask: “So, I’m confused about the role you would like to see white people play in trying to close the gap.” Awww… great question! My answer to you is the same answer Malcolm X gave to a white student who once asked him what she could do to help fight against racism:
“Nothing”.
I sincerely hope this clears up all your confusion.
I agree with Malcolm X. Us whites shouldn’t do anything including talking about racism. Where has it gotten us?
@Asa—Ouch!! That had to be clearer than crystal!
“…clearer than crystal!”
I’ve never heard that term before… like it… gonna use it! lol!
No, actually. I have been thinking a lot about this exchange.
I wrote two rather lengthy replies, and ditched them both because 1) I looked up more of your writings and am now pretty confident that nothing I say will resonate with you because you don’t want it to, and 2) the problem, as I see it, can’t be adequately addressed in brief.
The one thing I am coming away from this exchange with is this: despite what you think you understand about my culture, you really don’t understand it any better than I understand yours. I believe in dialogue. But that has to be a two-way street. I don’t harbor any fantasies that blacks and whites will ever fully understand each other. But I do believe that better understanding of each other is possible, and desirable. I’m sorry that you don’t; but I don’t feel responsible for that. I’m sorry that you feel it is okay to belittle that which you do not understand; but again, I don’t feel responsible for that.
So, again, thank you for taking the time to reply to my question. I invite you to continue the dialogue in a more appropriate forum; but I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen. But feel free to look me up if you decide to take me up on that. And beyond that, I wish you well!
Finally you ask: “So, I’m confused about the role you would like to see white people play in trying to close the gap.” Awww… great question! My answer to you is the same answer Malcolm X gave to a white student who once asked him what she could do to help fight against racism:
“Nothing”.
Malcolm X is reported to have expressed regrets for that answer. According to Alex Haley He wished he had told the girl to educate her people so that they wouldn’t be so racist. Which is the role Tim Wise seems to be playing.
“Malcolm X is reported to have expressed regrets for that answer.”
True. However, after 45 years since his death, in today’s white liberal progressive yuppie socialist led “post-racial society”, we plainly see that Blacks in America, other parts of the Diaspora, as well as Africa, are no better off, and it could even be argued that they are worse off, than in Malcolm’s time. So I say that Malcolm got it right the first time.
The only ones who seem to be benefitting most from the so-called “post-racial society”, other than the elites of the dominant culture who always seem to benefit no matter which party is in power, as well as their Blacks lackeys who are content to accept the crumbs from their table, are race hustlers like Tim Wise.
The only role Wise plays is providing white society with the tools to be more comfortable with their racism. He gives them permission to relish in the guilt of their white privilege, so they can then feel good about adopting black babies, giving to World Vision, sending aid to places like Haiti, holding rallies for Darfur, while nothing really changes in our condition!
We are no more living in a post racial society than we are living in a “progressive” or “socialist society”.
I would reserve the term “race hustlers” for those who continue to appeal to the white racism. In fact whites have never really learned to be guillty about the crap they did. They spend way too much time deny the evil of their ways.
Bottom line is Africans like all people need allies. Ask the Vietnamese about that.
You COMPLETELY missed the point of his argument! His argument is that if people of color were to express the same anger whites express, they would be seen as the bad guys, the troublemakers, the domestic terrorists. His point is not that black people are not doing enough to show their anger. Although I agree with what you said-that more people of color need to show their dissatisfaction with government, that is not the point to Wise’s essay. Also, he is not marketing himself in such a way to get you to buy his books. He does what he does not only because he feels passionate about it, but because if a person of color were to go around the country talking about how whites have privileges people of color do not have, if he/she were to write countless books and essays about whites and racism…it would be less credible. He makes this VERY clear whenever he speaks. Whites and even people of color would not see a person of color as being credible. They would just see and hear another bitchy black,latino man or woman complaining about how whites have it better and blah blah blah. I think you are not understanding this about Wise.
@Unknown…what you’re not getting is that Asabagna DOES NOT CARE. Who and what Wise pimps is his business….black folk have to take care of ourselves. The white folk need other white folk to figure it out..because ultimately, they don’t listen to black folk anyway.
@ Maggie, now I dont know if you’re black or white but reactions like yours are typical of people who “are trying” to understand racism and learn about how it impacts people. Great, thats all well and good but why are you so salty when you get an honest response to your question? Do you think all black people are waiting for the great white savior? Suddenly it’s you don’t know me and you’re closed to having dialogue about this, even though you admit to not knowing the answers suddenly talking about it is going to help us understand each other. Black people UNDERSTAND white people we have the same white washed media you do. The difference is that white people have the privilege of not interacting with black people, which is why despite the colourblindess they profess… they engage black people like oddities as if they haven’t been in America/Canada for hundreds of years.
Don’t state your ignorance then get upset when you encounter people who aren’t going to coddle you. If you want to learn sit back and shut up, don’t patronize and flaunt your privilege “I invite you to continue the dialogue in a more appropriate forum; but I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen”…You INVITE HIM to engage when you’re the one who doesn’t know..he’s not your teacher…buy a book or two Maggie.
@Queen… finally someone who gets it!
@Queen…If my response to Asabagna was “salty,” it was in response not to the honesty of his message, but to the tone of his message. It came across as extraordinarily condescending to me, and combined with the other writings of his that I read there seemed no reason to continue trying to talk to him. Why waste my energy there when it could be spent more productively?
You and Asabagna both seem pretty confident you “know white people.” You might know a lot. But if you honestly don’t understand that there are a whole lot of white people who are good people, who care about equality (NOT “sameness”), but who are not often in the presence of blatant racism and do not see how racism plays out around them through institutional discrimination, etc then you are not as enlightened as you think you are. Seriously. Asabagna talks about “white guilt.” I can’t say that white guilt doesn’t exist. Maybe it does. Maybe people older than I feel this. But I can tell you with certainty that I don’t feel guilty about things that came before me. I only feel responsibility to do my best with regard to the issues of my day. To that end, I am always trying to educate myself. Your suggestion to buy a book or two would have been far more meaningful if you had dropped the attitude and just suggested a couple titles you think would be educational. Instead, you chose to make huge assumptions about me that are way off-base. I own books, Queen. I own lots of books. I’ve even read them. But books are not experience. The closest I can come to understanding how someone else experiences life is to talk to that other person. Yes, it is important to listen. But your suggestion to sit back and shut up in order to learn is not entirely on track. Difference people perceive things different ways. I can learn as much from the questions someone asks as they can learn from my answers. And so can anyone else who is open to it.
From where I sit, it seems pretty arrogant of you, and Asabagna, to make sweeping assumptions about me or even about “white people,” when you so clearly have large gaps in your understanding. Why go there? Why default to disrespect? I approached Asabagna respectfully and he was unable to respond in kind. That diminishes both of us and serves no useful purpose. I stand by my original response. It was based on both my experience directly with him and my reading of his writings, and not on grand assumptions. Perhaps you should stop trying to read into my words whatever it is you hope or expect to see there and instead try to understand someone else’s perspective, which is- coincidentally- exactly what I was trying to do when I posed my original question to Asabagna.
@Maggie, so reality bites. It’s like that, as we black folks say over here in Oakland CA
I hope you check out the links that Queen supplied for you. She was not obligated to. Now the door is open to you to learn something radically new. And old.
If you take this on, and suspend your privilege, you most definitely will become enlightened.
Godspeed.
@Maggie,
You said “… It came across as extraordinarily condescending to me, and combined with the other writings of his that I read there seemed no reason to continue trying to talk to him…”
This is an issue. How many black people do you actuallyREALLY know? I have often heard this from whites when a black people are expressing ourselves as we do. Do you realize how often we hold back on fully expressing ourselves because of white timidness? I am certainly speaking of when in the work place or some other place of business. When we talk with our emotion, when we stand on our square, you shrink. Then point a finger, and say “why are you getting hostile?” Well, you say you were coming to learn, then learn that you are in our house and this is how we do! We are not in the work place here, we are how we are here.
You say you have read much of Asa’s work here, they you must have read comments to his work. How many comments did you read complaining of Asa’s “tone”? Because we know how we are, we know how we talk, and we can decipher condescending from standing on one’s square. You, like most whites, decide we are condescending when we are building. It’s condescending of you to come to Asa’s house and try to tell him how to respond. You say you really want to know about us and how we are, but you don’t want it how we give it. This ain’t Burger Kang!
@ Maggie–This is a classic derail from the task at hand. So i’ll bring you on back, so you can stop complaining about your hurt feelings and reevaluate the issue.
Maggie: Would you prefer white people to NOT acknowledge or work to educated other white people about the continuing problem of racism in America?”
Asabagna: The simple and honest answer is that I don’t care what white people do or not do… especially for each other. In the long run, it ain’t gonna help none of us black folk!
Maggie please note in your response you opted to NOT respond to why he doesn’t care why white people engage the racism discourse. That’s a critical component of your question..and instead of trying to understand that..you throw your hands up and cry–it’s clear talking to you is pointless. Is it pointless because you don’t understand the answer? Pointless because he didn’t say..yes yes white people please keep on talking about how this thing that can intellectualize but not really understand affects the lives of millions of people whose culture, way of communicating and norms we see as foreign and strange DESPITE the fact that POC have been in the US/ Canada for 100′s of years.
I believe there are allies..and there are people who are willing and want to work with allies and there are people who understand the importance of working WITHIN our communities to dismantle the psycho-social impact of racism. How can we depend on someone like you–who says about culture “despite what you think you understand about my culture, you really don’t understand it any better than I understand yours.” Let’s read that again “You dont understand it better than I UNDERSTAND YOURS” (emphasis mine). We should encourage people like you to do work within our communities? People like you who open acknowledge ignorance BUT believe that through communication we can close the gap? We’re communicating with you..you just dont like it. Acknowledge that and you’ll be 1 step closer to understanding how this whole racism thing you dont really understand but WANT to works.
I know there are white people who are “good people” but that doesn’t negate the existence of racism, America/ Canada are countries founded on the ideologies of white supremacy as a result, white people are raised in an environment with a sense of entitlement and normalcy about who they are that POC don’t experience. When everything you see perpetuates the belief that you are default–those messages become a part of how you see the world. Everyone internalizes those messages and it’s impossible as a white person growing up in a white country that you do not subscribe to some facets of the white supremacy structure you’ve been raised in.
What you read as “disrespect” was honesty, people communicate differently and your way is not the default and it’s not the only right way. The sit back and shut up comment was a response to your inability to respond to Asabagna’s comment to you. You immediately became defensive and emotionally vested as opposed to reading his comments, thinking about them and responding to the CONTENT rather than the delivery which YOU perceived as being condescending. Had you not made it about you, perhaps you would have been able to question WHY he sees the role as “Nothing” when it comes to white people closing the gap. Why he doesnt CARE about what white people do. It’s not about how “you feel” and how you interpret “his tone”, its about what he’s SAYING, understanding it and perhaps seeing the value in a perspective that doesn’t agree with your white savior fantasy.
So with no further ado, here’s some stuff to educate yourself.
1.Derailing for Dummies:
Play close attention to:
You’re being too hostile
If you cared about these matters you’d be willing to educate me
http://birdofparadox.wordpress.com/derailing-for-dummies-google-cache-reconstruction/
2. The Unapologetic Mexican-Glosario
http://www.theunapologeticmexican.org/glosario.html#maestro
3. Unpacking the knapsack
http://www.case.edu/president/aaction/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY- The Do’s and Don’t of being a good ally– Perhaps most important is Tone Argument point
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2009/10/01/the-do%E2%80%99s-and-don%E2%80%99ts-of-being-a-good-ally/
If you’re really trying to be an ally you’ll get over yourself and try to learn from the dialogue you’re having, not the one you’d be more comfortable with.
Queen, this was very informative, even for me!! You certainly pulled out your sword of truth on this response!
Every link your provided actually helps me to understand the dynamics of white priviledge that much better.
One more link….Perhaps the most important of them all
http://theangryblackwoman.com/2008/02/12/the-privilege-of-politeness/
@Queen: thanks for this. I concur that it’s the most important of all the links you provided. It should be required reading for every white person!
Blessings!
Interesting report but really nothing new:
Study: White and black children biased toward lighter skin
Good points.
I decide to reread Tim Wise article, looking for those nuances I may have missed the first time. What I’ve found is that I read too much into his article the first time!
Tim is saying a whole lot less than I previously thought. Is that possible? For example, Mr. Wise sums up his article this way:
“And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.”
What Tim says here changes my understanding of white privilege! It’s bigger than I thought! Being an a**hole racist is only one tentacle of the octopus. But Mr. Wise makes it seem that being a**hole racists is all there is to it. At least from the perspective of his article.
So those whites who don’t act like this can be free of guilt! And positioned to condescend and help their racially challenged brethren! They get to feel a sort of double privilege, while thinking that they are divesting themselves of privilege! Imagine! Brilliant! How did Tim do that?
For sure, Tim Wise is a major pimp, playing on all that white subconscious guilt. And playing very well, I might add!!
As our rapping griot Snoop Doggy Dogg would say, “The Game is to Be Sold, and not Told!!
I disagree with telling Maggie to do nothing.I have a question for Maggie though: Why ask ?
Anyone who wants to contribute to making this a better world should just do something, working on that behalf, no questions asked.
I have a story to tell:
It is about a woman by the name of Sandra Eleta, an artist and photographer and the daughter of white, wealthy elites from my native Panama.
She did not ask any questions; all she did was open up her home in Portobelo, a sleepy town with a long history on Panama’s Caribbean coast to artists from there and students from Spelman College.
Today, there is a joint project between Portobelo’s artists and African American students who travel there every summer to participate in this majestic venture.This program is directed by Panamanian born, Spelman College professor, Arturo Lindsay.
I am not interested in what people are saying, but where their heart is;I want to see what they are doing first before I pass judgment or even make a suggestion.
The same way every black person is not a friend, every white person is not an enemy either.
http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_16/issue_10/culture_10.html
http://www.spelman.edu/academics/offcampus/summer/portobelo
http://www.spelman.edu/artcolony/portobelo.html
Saludos a todos.
I agree with you Ana!
It seems that those whites who are DOING are the ones we respect the most. Just as the young white couple who started Kiva. I invite white folks to watch as the young woman address an audience of her peers on how to DO SOMETHING!
Listen to what she tells her people starting at 2:30 thru 2:45, then again at 3:00. What she is saying ties in with the article by Juan Santos posted by Freeslave recently.
A quote from that article:
“The only awareness most whites have of racism comes as a result of the immediate and very short term impact of the struggle of peoples of color upon their consciousness. The silencing of that struggle means only the end of its painful intrusion into white awareness – not the end of racism as an omnipresent, violent burden on the oppressed, not the end of racism as omnipresent oppression and degradation”
Keep listening as Jessica tells that she learned about “profit and losses” from the sheep herders she met! What white western student could believe that they could learn about business from the poor?
Rather than Tim Wise, white folks could learn so much more from this young woman, Jessica Jackley, who listened to Mohammad Yunus, and then went out and DID something about what she heard.
One more thing that I must add: This young woman went out and “did her own heavy lifting”! She said that she listened to Mohammad Yunus speak. That means she sought him out in order to hear him speak. Listening and hearing being the operate words! A key component of being an “ally”, and the issue with Maggie in the original discussion. Maggie wasn’t ready to truly LISTEN to us POC, but to project her ideas on how we as POC should relate to her in order for her to listen to us, which again she wasn’t ready to do.
Jessica, on the other hand, not only listened and heard Mohammad Yunus, but then went to the people in Africa so that she could LISTEN even more! I’m sure that not all were perfectly polite in telling their stories to her.
It was only in listening intently, that she was able to learn anything at all and come outside of the “false dichotomy” of white privilege—”the haves and have nots, us vs them”.
Correction for the second link:
http://www.spelman.edu/academics/offcampus/summer/about.html
I also like Lisa Shannon, who after just gaining information, started a movement to help women in the DRC.
Her book, A Thousand Sisters is a must read.
I do not write anyone off as a potential ally and friend based on race and also do not view non-blacks as enemies because in my opinion, many black people are part of the problem too,or are doing”nothing”, the very suggestion that was given to Maggie.
If blacks were really taking care of business, we could say to the many Marys, Harrys, Tim Wises,Jacintos and Sandras, etc., :We have everything covered,thanks.
Since this is not the case,black men and women need allies; furthermore, everyone need allies.
If you read more than one article by Tim Wise, you’ll see that he does not promote colorblindness/ “sameness” – actually, he wrote a book about that topic and how ridiculous the idea that we’re “post racial” is (heaven’t read Colorblind yet but in the one book and the many articles I have read he has definitely stated it clearly). He also points out multiple times in much of his writing that white guilt is not what he feels or what he is trying to encourage. He understands that we don’t need white anti racists to blabber on our account.
He has stated that black problems should be dealt with by the black community (example, use of the n-word: his opinion is that it’s none of white people’s business – just don’t use it and leave the discussion to black people). His whole “act” is not aimed at being the “embodiment of white guilt” but to educate/convince white people to at least avoid hindering our progress using the very privilege they claim not to have.
In any field of work there are those who do the “heavy lifting” and those who do the reasearch/debating/talking – all are valuable (not necessarily equally valuable but it’s silly to say the ones who happen to be “talkers” like Wise should just be ignored. He *is* enlightening to many, just not you and your readers).
Tim Wise doesn’t write for People of Color, although a great many POC relish his message and see many things they wish we could say in it–but we can’t. If we did, it wouldn’t be as effective. He speaks to the dominant group because he is doing his work. Educate your people–this applies to everyone. Folks of Color have come to have a great appreciation of his message and thus of him, but let’s not forget what he is doing here—you’re right we are NOT the same….so we shouldn’t assume that what he has written is aimed at Blacks, Latinos, Asian ects….it is aimed at the people his is a member of—and unfair or not, it is much more effective on that group than if any one of us had said it.