Dispatches from the Race War

City Lights Open Media

by Tim Wise

Published by: City Lights Publishers

Imprint: City Lights Publishers

352 Pages, 5.50 x 8.25 in

Paperback
9780872868090
Published: December 2020

$17.95

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

Essays on racial flashpoints, white denial, violence, and the manipulation of fear in America today.

"Drawing on events from the killing of Trayvon Martin to the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, Wise calls to account his fellow white citizens and exhorts them to combat racist power structures."—The New York Times

“What Tim Wise has brilliantly done is to challenge white folks' truth to see that they have a responsibility to do more than sit back and watch, but to recognize their own role in co-creating a fair, inclusive, truly democratic society.”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

"Tim Wise's new book gives us the tools we need to reach people whose understanding of our country is white instead of right. And without pissing them off!"—James W. Loewen, author, Lies My Teacher Told Me

"Tim Wise's latest is more urgent than ever. "—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy

"A white social justice advocate clearly shows how racism is America's core crisis. A trenchant assessment of our nation’s ills."—*Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

" [Dispatches from the Race War] is a bracing call to action in a moment of social unrest."—Publishers Weekly

"Dispatches from the Race War exhorts white Americans to join the struggle for a fairer society."—Chapter 16

In this collection of essays, renowned social-justice advocate Tim Wise confronts racism in contemporary America. Seen through the lens of major flashpoints during the Obama and Trump years, Dispatches from the Race War faces the consequences of white supremacy in all its forms. This includes a discussion of the bigoted undertones of the Tea Party’s backlash, the killing of Trayvon Martin, current day anti-immigrant hysteria, the rise of openly avowed white nationalism, the violent policing of African Americans, and more.

Wise devotes a substantial portion of the book to explore the racial ramifications of COVID-19, and the widespread protests which followed the police murder of George Floyd.

Concise, accessible chapters, most written in first-person, offer an excellent source for those engaged in the anti-racism struggle. Tim Wise’s proactive approach asks white allies to contend with—and take responsibility for—their own role in perpetuating racism against Blacks and people of color.

Dispatches from the Race War reminds us that the story of our country is the history of racial conflict, and that our future may depend on how—or if—we can resolve it. “To accept racism is quintessentially American,” writes Wise, “to rebel against it is human. Be human.”

Dispatches from the Race War: Table of Contents

Preface: Racism and Inequality in a Time of Illness and Uprising

Introduction: America’s Longest War

I. POST-RACIAL BLUES: RACE AND REALITY IN THE OBAMA YEARS

Good, Now Back to Work: The meaning (and limits) of the Obama victory

Denial is a River Wider than the Charles: Implicit bias and the burden of blackness in the age of Obama

Harpooning the Great White Wail: Reflections on racism and right-wing buffoonery

Imagine for a Moment: Protest, privilege, and the power of whiteness

If it Walks Like a Duck and Talks Like a Duck: Racism and the death of respectable conservatism

Bullying Pulpit: The problematic politics of personal responsibility

No Innocence Left to Kill:Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, and coming of age in an unjust nation

Killing One Monster, Unleashing Another: Reflections on revenge and revelry in America

You Will Know Them by the Eyes of Their Whites: Ferguson and white denial

II. TRUMPISM AND THE POLITICS OF PREJUDICE

Discovering the Light in Darkness: Donald Trump and the future of America

Reeking City on a Dung Heap: The dangerous worldview of Donald Trump

Patriotism Is for Black People: Colin Kaepernick and the politics of protest

If It’s a Civil War, Pick a Side: Charlottesville and the meaning of Trumpism

Making a Murderer (Politically Profitable): Immigration and hysteria in Trumplandia

Racist Is too Mild a Term: The President is a white nationalist

The Face of American Terrorism Is White

Weaponized Nostalgia: The evil genius of Donald Trump

III. 2020 VISION—AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS?

Americanism is a Pandemic’s BFF: Why the U.S. has been so vulnerable to COVID-19

It’s Not a Death Cult, It’s a Mass Murder Movement: The homicidal indifference of MAGA nation

Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud: COVID and Trumpism reveal America’s true virus

Bad Will Hunting: The killing of Ahmaud Arbery and the rituals of white supremacy

This Bias is Not Implicit: The problem isn’t fear, it’s contempt for black humanity

It’s not the Apples, It’s the Orchard: Police violence is neither new nor rare

Violence Never Works? America Would Beg to Differ

Nobody’s Perfect—So Why Do We Need Black People to Be? Demanding angelic victims of police violence is absurd

IV. CONFRONTING WHITE DENIAL, DEFLECTION, AND FRAGILITY

White Denial Is as American as Apple Pie

What, Me Racist? Understanding why your intentions are not the point

Weaponizing Appalachia: Race, class and the art of white deflection

Chicago Is Not a Punch Line (or an Alibi): White deflection and black-on-black crime

Identity Politics Are Not the Problem, Identity-Based Oppression Is

Farrakhan Is Not the Problem: Exploring the appeal of white America’s bogeyman

You May Not Be Racist but Your Ideology Is: Why modern conservatism is racist

Who’s the Snowflake Now? White fragility in a time of turmoil

V. MIS-REMEMBER WHEN: RACE AND AMERICAN AMNESIA

Dream Interrupted: The sanitizing of Martin Luther King Jr.

Holocaust Denial, American-Style

History, Memory, and the Implicit Racism of Right-Wing Moralizing

Europe Didn’t Send Their Best Either: Immigration and the lies we tell about America (and ourselves)

Racism Is Evil but Not Un-American

MAGA Is a Slur and Your Hat Is Hateful

Statues Make Good Rubble: An open letter to my fellow Southerners

VI. ARMED WITH A LOADED FOOTNOTE: DEBUNKING THE RIGHT

Cheap White Whine: Debunking reverse discrimination and white victimhood

Rationalizing Unequal Policing: Exposing the right’s war on justice

Hey Conservatives, Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings Either: Debunking the lie of welfare dependence

Baby Mama Drama: Debunking the Black Out-of-Wedlock Birth Rate Crisis

Debunking the Model Minority Myth: Using Asian Americans as pawns in a white game

Intelligence and Its Discontents: Debunking IQ and the absurdity of race science

Nazis Make Lousy Researchers: Debunking the myth of Jewish power

VII. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Not Ready to Make Nice: The fallacy of outreach and understanding

Checking Privilege (While Not Being an Asshole)

Spreading Solidarity in Pandemic Times

Coalition building in a post-corona America

“Listen to Black People” is Completely Correct and Entirely Insufficient: Amplifying Black voices does not mean refusing to use our own

Taking Personal Responsibility Seriously: Rejecting white saviorism and embracing allyship

Forget STEM, We Need MESH: Civics education and the future of America

Who’s Afraid of De-Policing? Why a radical sounding idea isn’t as crazy as you think

Hope Is a Noun, Justice Is a Verb, and Nouns are Not Enough

About the Author

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.

Praise for Tim Wise's Dispatches from the Race War
"The volume appears at a post-Trump time when it may actually be possible to begin redressing centuries of legitimate Black grievances. It behooves the serious attention of anyone, of any racial or ethnic background, for whom fighting racism is a top personal and political priority."—Paul Von Blum, ScheerPost
"Through clear examples, inscrutable logic, and the power of direct language, Wise challenges White Americans to identify and understand the racism inscribed in the very American project and in the everyday acts of 'being American.'"—Romi Mahajan, Countercurrents
" . . . shares some of the clearest, most honest thinking about racism, inequality, and white privilege that you are ever likely to hear from a white man. 'Can we just put aside all the rationalizations and deflections to which we reflexively pivot and instead imagine what it must feel like to walk through life having to always think about how to behave so as not to scare white people, or so as not to trigger our contempt?’ he asks."—Joseph Barbato, NY Journal of Books

Praise for Tim Wise
"Tim Wise is a vanilla brother in the tradition of John Brown . . . "—Cornel West
"One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation. He is a national treasure."—Michael Eric Dyson
"(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
"Tim Wise is one of the few people, along with perhaps Frederick Douglass, who has ever really spoken honestly and forcefully to white people about themselves . . . "—Charles Ogletree, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice
"The fate of this country depends on whites like yourself speaking the truth to those who don’t want to hear it. In this, you are as one with the Biblical prophets. You are more likely to be condemned than lauded, and yet your words are no less important. So, keep speaking out. At the very least, some future archeologists sifting through the ashes of this civilization may be able to find evidence that there were some who offered truth as a cure for the disease that destroyed us."—Derrick Bell, Professor of Law, New York University
"(His) is the clearest thinking on race I’ve seen in a long while written by a white writer . . . right up there with the likes of historians Howard Zinn and Herb Aptheker as far as I’m concerned."—Dr. Joyce King, Benjamin Mays Endowed Chair for Urban Teaching, Learning and Leadership, Georgia State University
"Sparing neither family nor self . . . he considers how the deck has always been stacked in his and other white people's favor . . . His candor is invigorating."—Publishers Weekly

Dispatches from the Race War

City Lights Open Media

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