Tim Wise is an American anti-racist activist and writer and a leading figure in the Civil Rights Movement.
Background
Wise attended Tulane University in New Orleans and received his B.A. there, and went on to receive his antiracism training at the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, also located in New Orleans. He lives in Nashvile, Tennessee, with his wife and two daughters. Wise is the Director of the newly-formed Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE) in Nashville, Tennessee. He is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S., having given lectures in 46 different states, and on over 300 college campuses. He has trained a multitude of teachers, corporate employees and law enforcement officers in methods for dismantling racism in their institutions. From 1999 to 2003, Wise held the position of advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute and also was Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism. Wise received the 2002 National Youth Advocacy Coalition's Social Justice Impact Award as well as the 2001 British Diversity Award. He has appeared on radio and television broadcasts arguing the case for Affirmative Action and Slavery Reparations for African-Americans, as well as a revised educational system and an end to systemic white privilege. Despite his Jewish ethnicity, Wise is a self-described "Pro-Palestinian Supporter" and has denounced what he sees as a war of racist colonization by Israel upon Palestine; he is also very much opposed to the political movement of Zionism and contrasts the likeness of a Jewish ethnic state to the former apartheid regime of South Africa. He also has accused right wing supporters of Israel of using anti-semitism as a shield against criticsm of Israel's policies. It should additionally be pointed out that Wise has voiced his opposition to anti-semitic conspiracy theories in the past, including the highly popular myth among American anti-semities that "Jews control the American Media". Wise has also been a vocal critic of President George W. Bush and of both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, which he considers racist and imperialist aggressions, and of all of the Bush administration's post-9/11 foreign and domestic policies.
Criticism
Tim Wise is a polarizing figure in the realm of American racial politics because of his style of argument, which is known to range from scholarly and well informed lectures to angry rants occasionally dotted with profanity, and have included sweeping indictments of white American behavior and culture. Many, on both the polical left and right, see Wise as a loose canon. His main detractors, prominent conservatives such as David Horrowitz and Dinesh D' Souza, accuse him of supporting reverse racism against whites (affirmative action) while simultaneously harboring snide racist beliefs that non-whites are inferior and need affirmative action in order to compete with their white counterparts. Wise has denied the charges and insisted that affirmative action is a system created to address the wounds of past racial discrmination that have left clearly visible economic burdens on minorities, the African-American community in particular. Dinesh D'Souza has labeled Wise "The Uncle Tom of the white race".
Wise's main political adversary in the debate over such issues as affirmative action, slavery reparations and institutional discrimination is David Horrowitz, whom Wise has never directly accused of practicing racism, but has criticized him thoroughly for cozying up to people that Wise sees as racists. Horrowitz has countered by accusing him of making unfounded generalizations about his own race, wildly exaggerating the racial bias in American institutions, bullying his political opponents, playing at a sort of left wing facism and unfairly treating anyone that refuses to acknowledge his point of view as 100% accurate (who is white) of being inherently racist. Though Wise has vehemently denied this last point, in an article entitled "The truth is rarely pleasant: racism, white denial, and some thoughts on being", his position does not contrast so well:
"It is whites who are in denial about the ongoing problem of racism, and this denial is itself a form of racism: a kind of white supremacy that says, "I know your reality better than you do;".
Due to the fact that the majority of Wise's critics happen to be members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations or the National Alliance, all racist and anti-semitic orgnizations, many moderate figures on the political right have felt uneasy criticizing Wise for the simple fact that they do not want to be seen as being in the same camp as his other critics. For those who do criticize him, their main arguments revolve around the notion that Wise is a divisive figure who complicates relations between whites and minorities in America, especially in college settings where it is arguable that tensions can flare up at the drop of a hat. Horrowitz contends that Wise's support of programs that benefit minorities and may hinder whites only further damage the non-white communities in America because they tend to make minorities more docile and less independent. Since Wise disagrees with Horrowitz's theories that African-American communities, inner city environments in particular, are plagued by a lack of morality or responsibility, Wise has integrated a unique approach to the debate by contrasting the actions of white and black Americans and what he sees as double standards, such as riots perpetrated by mainly white Americans which go unreported in the media while African-American or Latino-American riots are covered and denounced extensively. Opponents on this issue note that riots stirred by predominantly white crowds, usually at college campuses, cause far less damage, result in less injuries, pratically never result in fatalities and never involve clashes between races.
One of the more potent criticisms of Wise stems from the fact that he occassionally takes quotes or facts severely out of context. Jared Taylor, a controversial political writer who has made appearances at conventions that have drawn the personas of David Duke and Don Black, and Wise raged intensely in an internet email argument after Wise labeled him a "blatant racist" and went on to criticize David Horrowitz for using one of Taylor's essays at Horrowitz's conservative newspaper, FrontPageMag.com. Taylor points out that Wise's main argument that he is racist is based on a false quote that Wise attributed to him:
"...in some important traits--intelligence, law-abidingness, sexual restraint, academic performance, resistance to disease--whites can be considered 'superior' to blacks."
Taylor appears to have made this statement only in the context of summarizing the argument of a different writer's prejudiced literature. He alleges that he was merely analyzing the statement and was in fact rebuking it. Wise has also made factually incorrect statements in the past, such as a statement he made in an article entitled "My Life as a Resident Alien", in which he stated that Syrians were actually responsible for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and the bombing of a roller disco building in Germany which killed American soldiers - Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi has come forward in the past and admitted responsibility for both terrorist bombings and reparations to the families of Pan Am Flight 103.
On a smaller note, it has been alleged that Wise is an extremely arrogant figure, evidenced by a publicized debate he once held with a liberal arts college student in which he regarded the younger man, whom held an opposing viewpoint, in a thoroughly condescending and self-flattering manner. Furthermore critics contend, Wise has frequently referred to himself as a "dissident" and attempted to frame himself in the image of the one pure soul in the midst of an entire mass of racists - a would-be rebel. Another such instance in which detractors allege his arrogance is in statements he has made regarding the racial characteristics of Christ and how, he believes, Christians should worship him. Wise believed they should adopt an African-looking figure into their religion, if only for a single holiday in their entire life, which has caused resentment since Wise is Jewish and his motives are seen as intrusive. Similarly, others have protested what they see as Wise's practice of anti-Christian bigotry, the main incident being his choice of words in an emotional article he penned focusing on Christian views of gay rights:
"To even imply such a thing would demonstrate one's "intolerance" of fundamentalists; as would, I suppose, mentioning that evangelical Christianity is, by definition, intolerant, as per its desire to convert all non-Christians so as to "win the world for Christ"--an act of spiritual genocide against other faiths or the faithless to be sure. Yet, to even say this makes one "intolerant," in which case, perhaps we need a little less tolerance, and a lot more truth. As a Jew, let me make clear: what I need is not tolerance, 'cause all that means is that you'll smile and insist you love me as you tell me my soul is in jeopardy. But see, I don't want your love: I want you off my ass, and I want you to check your arrogance, and no, I don't think you have a right to teach that shit to your kids--or at least, not an exclusive right--seeing as how me and a lot of my non-Gentile and queer friends are gonna have to deal with your kids out here in the real world someday."
This statement is seen as hypocritical to some, since Wise seldom criticizes non-Christians. Muslims in Africa and Asia, for example, practice a form of Evangelism similar to Christianity and Muslim cultures are widely known to be far less tolerant of homosexuality than Christian societies, and in some Muslim regions it is even punishable by death. This alleged double-standard has also led to the allegation that Wise is only willing to condemn white men for their actions. Ann Coulter, for instance, is seen as one of the leading voices of the far right section of the Republican Party, and has made multiple statements that have offended Muslims across the nation, however, he has not criticized her, while he has criticized Morris Dees, a leading white anti-racist organizer who founded the Southern Law Poverty Center, which has been responsibile for bankrupting several white racist groups in the SouthWest. Wise has even gone so far as to accuse Michael Moore of indoctrinating racism into his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, due to a certain scene in the movie that mocks the Coalition of the Willing. This has weakened his standing on the left, as Moore is regarded as an idol to many there. Many see Wise's comments as out of line and having gone too far, and that he is now seeking out racism in places where it does not exist. Wise's supporters contend that he focuses his attention on white males specifically for the same reason that left-wing icon Noam Chomsky spends most of his energy criticizing the United States government even while other foreign nations have commit atrocities which he admits are far greater than that of his own country - because of the fact that he is a part of that category or system, and is therefore capable of effecting a greater change.
One of the less oustanding criticisms of Wise is that his material is distributed and used as propoganda by racist, anti-semitic, anti-American and anti-Christian websites and orginizations, Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam among them. To this end Wise is seen as fueling hatred against whites, as his articles have appeared on certain African-American websites that have made anti-white statements and even gone as far as urging the killing of white Americans. On a similar note Wise has rejected the importance of speaking out against black racism since he considers it far less dangerous than white racism and less widespread. Critics such as David Horrowitz argue that black racism is actually more deeply rooted in the African-American community than the white community, which he supports by pointing to the Colin Fergusson subway massacre and a number of opinion polls taken among African-Americans that have shown that more than two-thirds of their communities see Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, considered racists and anti-semities by many on the right for previous statements, in a positive light. Wise has also recommended certain reading materials in the past that have been widely described as racist against whites, such as "Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior" which has been denounced by a number of academic sources for pandering to anti-white, anti-Christian sentiments and for its widely discredited theory that Europeans were interbred with Neanderthals.