White Like Me
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About this audiobook
Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise demonstrates the ways in which racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits, in relative terms, those who are “white like him.” He discusses how racial privilege can harm whites in the long run and make progressive social change less likely. He explores the ways in which whites can challenge their unjust privileges, and explains in clear and convincing language why it is in the best interest of whites themselves to do so. Using anecdotes instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable and yet scholarly, analytical and yet accessible.
Editor's Note
A great primer…
More than a decade after its initial publication, Wise’s words still resonant and reveal just how silly it is to claim that we’re living in a “post-racial” America. A great primer on the complications of being a good ally.
Tim Wise
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.
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Reviews for White Like Me
233 ratings12 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I don't agree with everything Tim Wise says, but he's a great writer (and amazing speaker -- I heard him on January 17 of this year) and thinker. He is incredibly effective at identifying and raising awareness of white privilege and systemic racism. This is a book I should reread regularly, and his short chapter titled "Parenthood" is one that I'm thinking about copying and distributing to some of my friends who are the parents of young children.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The book is fascinating and challenging. Tim Wise makes many good points about racism and white privilege. My only criticism of the book is Wise’s attempt to justify Jeremiah Wright’s anti American hate mongering from behind the pulpit.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book! Helped me think more critically about race. Thank you.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A wake up call for anyone who thinks they are not racist and/or has not benefited from white privilege.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outstanding memoire written like a treatise on Whiteness and why it’s necessary for all people, regardless of “race” to fight the inequities for people of color that come with Whites living comfortably in their privilege.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This a book made for white people about race and I think it's a great starting point for anyone. Tim reads his own writing and it really let's the conviction and honesty of what he's saying shine through. He examines his life and his work as an anti-racist activist through the lense of privilege and it really shows you that you can talk about your own faults without self hating. If you don't understand the concept of privilege and you want to learn about it, listen to this.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Bemoaning the state of race relations in America to the tune of 6 figures a year is not some emancipatory praxis. Wise is a hustler and an OK writer
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Nothing detrimental. To spend 11 hours is a waste of my time. Just another tikki alum kind of race huckster, I mean, author.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An incredible book that gave me a fresh perspective on white privilege and racial issues. Definitely a must read
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I believe white privilege is detrimental for whites as well as obviously for folks of color. Tim Wise does a good job tuning into memorable details that can help us counteract white privilege in our daily lives and slowly disassemble it.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's all thanks to Matt Peters that I discovered this engaging and informative book. Matt has frequently linked to Wise's anti-racist writings, so I added a few of his books to my wishlist and finally scored this off of paperbackswap.
This book is what it sounds like it should be, a memoir about race and white privilege. Wise does a remarkable job not just of identifying his own privilege and chronicling his anti-racism activism, but also owning up to times when he dropped the ball -- when his privilege blinded him to the effects of race in his own community.
I loved this book, from beginning to end. This should be no surprise, given how much I love Wise's essays online. I intend to read some of his other books, though I'd really love it if he wrote a more practical primer on anti-racism. He does include a section on action in this book, but the most impressive examples of how to effectively talk to people about privilege seem to require a much deeper understanding of issues like welfare, unemployment, the economy, that I just don't have. And are certainly not the dominant narrative in society -- it's the stuff that those who make money off of the disparity between the rich and the poor don't want you to know! So how does the average person, for whom anti-racism is one of a number of issues they are committed to, go about educating themselves? Where to start?1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eye opening explanation of the role of white privilege in society. You think you are poor and powerless? Wise details how his white privilege has created the opportunities others he grew up with would never have. From the house he lived in, the high school debate team, the liberal arts college, the career, Wise's ability to probe his life gives us all a chance see the insidiousness and depth of racism in our society.
1 person found this helpful