I admire what this guy’s got to say. Like me, he uses the privilege he’s given to get his message to folks who would normally reflexively dismiss folks with similar knowledge and creds who don’t have pink skin.
So far I’ve only been able to read the PDF transcript, but I will include links to YouTube videos.
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Wise
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/timjwise
Website: http://timwise.org/
Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
On White Privilege (transcript)
http://www.mediaed.org/handouts
Tim Wise: White Like Me – Parts 1-8 (audio)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
Let me know what you think!
I’ve been reading his archive articles. Many thanks for the link!
One of the reasons I get bored with most privlege conversations is that they quickly stop being conversations – the people involved are just screaming “I’m right and you’re wrong!” at each other. The articles I’ve been reading stir up thought instead of shutting it down.
Well it’s such a challenging and difficult conversation for many people (non-pink and pink). At issue is hundreds of years, thousands of years of bad feelings.
One of the core tenets of anti-*-ist activism is that those who wish to repsectfully learn must not in any context demand explanations of any kind from the folks who are at the exploited end of the dynamic. The reason why is that those folks can get rapidly burned out, frustrated and pissed off. And it’s true even if you go into a situation volunteering to be the educator. Eventually some complete dickhead manages to bait you successfully and you are no longer an educator but a screamer.
That burnout/flashfire is why I generally try to stay out of the *-ism 101 conversations theres days. I’m tapped out.
But another part of me hates that it takes a pink guy (haver of all the privilege in the world) to defang it enough to have the conversation and have it functionally. And at the same time another part of me wants to say, “Thank god. Now you do all the talking.”
*nods* The demanded explanation dynamic seems to be the most common explosion theme, followed closely by the experience denial “Well I’ve never experienced that (so you must be crazy/lying/etc)”. And there’s usually a ton of transference going on with everyone involved during those conversations.
Does make me wonder what woke him up to it.
[...] 22, 2008 – Tim Wise – A Caucasian Anti-Racist Activist and Speaker Lots of links to and about this guy, and in the comments, some discussion of the dynamic of having [...]