Timothy Jacob Wise (born October 4, 1968) is an American activist and writer on the topic of race. He is a consultant who provides anti-
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
lectures to institutions.
Early life and education
Wise was born in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...
, to Michael Julius Wise and LuCinda Anne (
née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...
McLean) Wise. His paternal grandfather was
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
(of
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
origin). The rest of his ancestry is mostly northern European, including some Scottish. Wise has said that when he was about 12 years old his synagogue was attacked by
white supremacist
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...
s.Tim Wise on Race and Racism in America The Rock Newman Show (44-47 min. mark); December 10, 2014 Wise attended public schools in Nashville, graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1986. Wise has a BA from
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pu ...
Political Science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and ...
and minored in
Latin American Studies
Latin American studies (LAS) is an academic and research field associated with the study of Latin America. The interdisciplinary study is a subfield of area studies, and can be composed of numerous disciplines such as economics, sociology, history ...
. While a student, he was a leader in the campus anti-
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
movement, which sought to force Tulane to divest from companies still doing business with the government of South Africa. His anti-apartheid activism was first brought to national attention in 1988, when South African Archbishop
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbish ...
announced he would turn down an offer of an honorary degree from Tulane after Wise's group informed him of the school's ongoing investments there.
Career
After graduating from Tulane in 1990, Wise started working as an anti-racism activist after receiving training from the New Orleans-based People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. Wise began initially as a youth coordinator, and then associate director, of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and
Nazism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
, the largest of the various organizations founded for the purpose of defeating political candidate
David Duke
David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, far-right politician, convicted felon, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a member ...
when Duke ran for U.S. Senate in 1990 and Governor of Louisiana in 1991. After his work campaigning against David Duke, Wise worked for a number of community-based organizations and political groups in
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of countie ...
and New Orleans, including the Louisiana Coalition for Tax Justice, the Louisiana Injured Worker's Union and Agenda for Children. Later in the 1990s, Wise began lecturing around the country on the issues of racism, criticizing white privilege (his own included), and defending affirmative action.
From 1999 to 2003, Wise was an advisor to the
Fisk University
Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1930, Fisk was the first Afric ...
Race Relations Institute. Wise argues that racism in the United States is institutionalized due to past overt racism (and its ongoing effects) along with current-day discrimination. Although he concedes that personal, overt bias is less common than in the past (or at least less openly articulated), Wise argues that existing institutions continue to foster and perpetuate
white privilege
White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. With root ...
, and that subtle, impersonal, and even ostensibly race-neutral policies contribute to racism and racial inequality today. Wise starred in a 2013 documentary entitled ''
White Like Me
''White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son'' is a book by activist and writer Tim Wise. It is a personal account examining white privilege and his conception of racism in American society through his experiences with his family and ...
'', based on the book by Wise of the same name.
Personal life
After living in New Orleans for ten years, Wise relocated to his native Nashville in 1996. In 1998, he married Kristy Cason. The couple have two children. Wise considers himself Jewish by heritage and ethnicity, but does not practice Judaism as a religion. He is a critic of Israel, and philosophically opposed to Zionism, which he views as not only oppressive to non-Jews in Palestine, but detrimental to Jews as well, and counter to Jewish values.
Soft Skull Press
Counterpoint LLC was a publishing company distributed by Perseus Books Group launched in 2007. It was formed from the consolidation of three presses: Perseus Book Group, Perseus' Counterpoint Press, Avalon Publishing Group's Shoemaker & Hoard an ...
, 2004)
* ''Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White'' (
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, ...