Tim Wise is a very engaging speaker, when he gets on a roll you can feel and hear the passion that he feels about the subject. The facts that he used to identify the problems in the American culture were shocking, which is good, they are facts I won’t forget.
What surprised me the most was his discussion of New York stop and frisk law. The two-tenths or two-tents of a half of a percent, I don’t remember the exact number, of minorities that actually had weapons on them is a number so low I cannot fathom how the government sees this as actually working. That does prove a privilege that white people have that I haven’t thought about much, the lack of suspicion when involved or near crimes.
I don’t necessarily disagree with what Tim Wise says, he makes very good points, but I’m not sure if there is much that can be done besides just wait in some cases. He complained about networking being the most difficult thing that was causing an inadvertent racism in the job market. Companies were still segregated not that long ago, and the bosses is many companies still are from that era, our generation is just filtering in. Yes, I understand minorities might not know bill in accounting, but I find it hard to believe that in a few years, Bill won’t be a minority.
Tim Wise’s discussion pertains directly to class, we’ve discussed the war on drugs and how it is really a war on race, white privilege, the lack of minorities in television, hegemony and a ton of other topics that show how minorities are portrayed and treated.
Tim talked about his black friends, and many of us say that, oh we have a Black (Asian, Indian, Latino} friend, so we can’t be racist. This part of his discussion is the part that really made me think, even if we identify with the minority we can’t really understand the world through their eyes. So, I’m wondering is there a way to truly understand and live in a way so that the white privilege doesn’t exist?
mediandidentity 