Tim Wise's book, White Like Me, takes a look at racism from the perspective of the whites in the United States. Through his writings, Wise hopes to be able to open the eyes of white people to the privilege that has been bestowed upon them as the dominant racial group in our society. "Being a member of the majority, the dominant group, allows one to ignore how race shapes one's life" (Wise 2). Beginning from this premise, by using examples and stories from his own life, he attempts to show just how privilege has shaped his life and what he has done for the fight against racism.
Privilege, according to Wise, amounts to almost every experience that a white person has within their life. Simple things like whether or not your presence in a certain area will be questioned or larger things such as access to college educations are all related to the color of our skin at birth. People don't automatically assume you are poor or going to steal when you are in a store, they don't cross the street to avoid walking past you, and they don't assume you are selling to drugs to buy your new shoes. This is not exactly the kind of thing that there is a lot of expert research on. All the evidence and claims that Wise make concerning the subject are all related to his personal experiences and his work relating to activism. However, this being the case I feel that he does make a very strong argument; I have been able to relate to what he is saying in many of his stories.
During one such story he recounts that in his youth he would go to underage keg parties and when the cops would come by they would do little except tell them to keep the noise down. There was no doubt as to the fact that kids were drinking and smoking pot, but no one was arrested and no fines were given. During this same time Wise was running a fake ID business for which he never got in trouble when he or anyone else was caught with one. Wise chalks all of this up to the fact that these homes were in white neighborhoods and that the cops weren't out to make trouble for white kids (35-7).
In all the keg parties I have been to, I can say that this definitely rang true for me. I have never seen any one get arrested or even fined at a party in Milwaukee when the cops have shown up. They merely kick everyone out and even that seems like a joke most of the time, people usually just come back within an hour or so.
Considering the state of the country with terrorism and national security, you'd think that law enforcement would take possession of a fake ID very seriously. If a person of Middle Eastern decent was caught with a fake ID, I'm sure they would have had a much harder time than a white person. I have known several white kids to have had their IDs taken away with not so much as even a slap on the wrist. On another note, if you go to almost any of the bars near campus, many of them knowingly let in people with fake IDs, yet nothing is done to stop it. These bars of course are packed to capacity with white kids.
Resistance is where Wise is trying to lead the readers of his book. To resist racism is to act in what he calls an antiracist way. According to Wise, we all have the choice to stand up and confront racism or to back down and say nothing at all (73). This can be hard for some of us who have family and friends whose feelings are really ingrained with a racist way of thinking. Again, Wise uses an example from his life where he stood up to a person he had just met who told a black joke to a room full of white people. Instead of saying nothing to the man, which he feels is worse than saying nothing at all, Wise chose to engage the man into a reflective discussion about just why the joke was wrong.
Wise goes about this subject of resistance in a way that has never been offered as an option to me or anyone I have ever talked to. To stand up and combat racism as opposed to simply ignoring it, telling yourself that you aren't a racist, or even trying not to think racist thoughts is a huge step to take. In effect you are shedding your layer of privilege and opening yourself up to the possibility of rejection or even ridicule. The most I learned from parents and school, as well intentioned as they were, was only that everyone is equal and deserves to be treated fairly. Had this combative attitude been implanted I may have been challenging the system as a younger person. We all might have, it's hard to say how many minds could have been steered away from prejudice.
One of the finer points Wise tries to make in his argument is that as white antiracists, we do not fight racism for black people. We have to fight it because it is evil and we hate it, we do it for ourselves and our community (98). We must however fight to keep resistance in our lives. No matter how hard you fight against racism, it can always rear its head in your life. Since we have been learning it from such an early stage and see it all around us, its almost impossible to completely change your mode of thought. According to Wise, we don't always act in an intellectual way, sometimes we just operate on conditioning. All it takes is a situation to bring to mind a stereotype and you are working against this antiracist mentality (134). Despite the challenges that come with being an antiracist, the work is absolutely necessary. Destroying racism as a goal might never be able to be accomplished, but nothing worth having has ever been easy.

I absolutely loved the insight of this author. Even if you don't agree with every single point, you will definitely think and question your previous perspective on how you view race. That is what good writing does. From a white person's perspective and experiences, the author exposes the myth of "color-blindness" in America. To be clear, this book has absolutely nothing to do with promoting white "guilt" (as a previous reviewer falsely claimed), but has its focus squarely on white "responsibility" that is wed to the bride that is "white privilege". In fact, white "guilt" is clearly shunned upon.

The book is essentially one half "raising awareness" about white privilege (I had previously, and perhaps arrogantly, thought that I was sufficiently aware on the subject. I was wrong.), and one half "practical solutions" about what whites can do to combat racism on a regular basis. I found the Chapter on "Resistance" most useful. If you have ever struggled on how best to EFFECTIVELY resist institutional racism and racist behavior as a matter of everyday living (from challenging a biased policy at your child's school to dealing with being told an uncomfortable racist joke), then this is the book for you. The book's second half is essentially a handbook on how whites who abhor racism can actually do something about it, and act as a change agent to other whites who are often unknowingly perpetuating that racial inequity. Kudos to Tim Wise.

The style of the author is like listening to a person that likes to talk about himself all the time. Kinda reminds me of the 1980 movie "Airplane" when the ex-fighter pilot tells the story of his life to the passengers; they end their lives in different ways after having to hear him...
There are no issues if you planned on finding one. There is no summary and never any conclusion to the issue of racism. It is an amusing story of a 36 year old that has dillidallied in the fight for Black Power. His talk about racism is not scientific nor scholar but simply comes across as to what he's heard. Just alot of personal events that make you dizzy in trying to remember that the author indeed has a point to tell after all the irrelevant details of his story come in pages after pages of paper product.
Amusing, yes, informative, no. I cant see either Whites or Blacks reading this and taking him seriously. So who's left? Nah, us Latinos just nod our heads...

Racial discrimination has always been a problem in our society. Decades ago people of color were seen as incompetent people and became slaves to the white people. But over the years as a society we have come to denounce discrimination based upon color and tried to make everyone equal. However, as much as we may like to believe that our society has come to see everyone as equal, it has not. In Tim Wise book "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son" he shows us how color the of someones skin leads to privilege or discrimination.
In his first chapter is talks about how before we are born our life is already set our for us. Before we even enter the world we have already been given a race and place in society. If we are born white we will have a life of privilege. However, if we are born of a different race we will be discriminated against and have to fight for the privilege we want. It will more than likely determine how we are treated in school by our teachers, who will get in trouble with the law, who will attend college, who will live in poverty and who will not, and who obtains the good jobs and who gets the minimum wage jobs. All of these things will already be set for you because of the race of your parents. Your parents part in society is what you will be born into and that is what your life will be like before you even have a chance to grow up and have a choice of your own.
Education is one place where race plays a big role in privilege. Wise talks about how his whole school experience was tainted by discrimination wether it was racialized placement of students into advanced or remedial classes, or the way extracurricular opportunities were for white students only, or the fact that dances revolved around white music, or even that the curriculum was almost completely Eurocentric (15-16). Wise even talks about a time where him and an African American student had both gotten into trouble at school one day. They had then gotten sent to the principals office to receive their punishments. In this instance privilege helped Tim because he only received a verbal warning while his friend John got paddled by the principal. Because Tim was born of a white family he was not paddled that day at school. Wise mentions another time where the fact that he was white gained him many privileges. While he was in highschool he would attend many parties where alcohol was being served and drugs were being used and that there were many times where the cops would come up on the property because of a noise complaint, and at no point at any of these parties was any one arrested for illegal drinking or drug use and it was all because it was in a white neighborhood and attended by mostly white people. If it had been a part in the black neighborhood attended by African Americans they police would have had no problem stopping the party and arresting anyone that had been drinking or doing drugs.
Another privilege he received was that because of color he was not seen as a threat to anyone. One night he got lost on his way to a dinner and he never had to be afraid that anything would happen to him in this rural area because he was a white person. If it had been a black person in that area and he walked up to a house and asked for directions the people would have never opened up the door for him because they would have thought he was going to cause trouble. It is these stereotypes that people obtain before they are even born. People see a black baby and they probably think that he's going to grow up to be a trouble maker while a white baby is seen as someone that is going to grow up to be someone with a great job.
Wise then goes on to his chapter about resistance. In this chapter he talks about how discrimination is always there not matter if it is obvious or not, and as white people we just fail to see it or just ignore it. But we are people of privilege so how do we know what discrimination looks like or is because as white folks we have never been discriminated against. We refuse to see what African Americans are telling us when it comes to racism. Wise says "whites refuse to believe what people of color say about racism in their own lives-and have refused to believe it in every generation" (67). We just push it off as them blowing it out of proportion or being over reactive to something. But the privileged just don't want to see it. We like our privilege and don't want to lose that part of our life and therefore refuse to accept that there is still discrimination in our society.
In today's society discrimination is not out right accepted. However, discrimination behind closed doors still happens. We judge people based upon their color and not who they are. When people see a African American on the street they think to themselves keep an eye on him because he could be dangerous, while a white person would not even be considered dangerous. African Americans are watched more in stored because it is figured they will be the ones to steal and not a white kid. Then in education African American kids are mostly seen as the trouble makers in the classroom. No matter how much we try race will always be a problem in our society, and we just need to learn to see it when it is happening and step up and say something when it happens. By doing this we can work to obtain a society where there is no discrimination but were everyone is born into privilege.

There's not too many people in today's American society that are proud to be racist; let alone willing to admit to it. As most of us have learned, we've made major strides toward equality as a country and I would assume that this is something most people are proud of. However, because of the great efforts to fight racism and the history lessons that most of America's children are taught, the majority of America's white population refers to racism as a "thing of the past". Whether or not it's a touchy subject that not many people care to discuss or honest ignorance, it is something that is very prevalent in today's world, and a major thing that whites take for granted. Tim Wise discusses similar issues in his book entitled "White Like Me" and helped to open my eyes, me being a white, middle class, suburban girl, to a lifestyle that I had been taking for granted.
The book "White Like Me" reveals what it really means to be white in the U.S. today. Tim Wise opens his reader's eyes to the privileges whites are born into, how we can choose to resist racism and stand up for what we truly believe in, and also how white Americans can begin the path to redemption. As the book begins, Wise presents the reader with a question dealing with the beginning of one's life. He asks, "Does your life begin o the day you came into this world, or does it begin before that, with the lives of you family members... without whom you would never have existed?" (Wise ). This is an important question that many of us have never asked ourselves, and therefore, considered some trivial issues, such as racism, as being out of our control. Wise answers the question by stating that the story of his life begins much earlier than the day he entered this world; and the way he justifies his response makes me think the same thing. As Wise admits, none of us were born onto a "blank slate of neutral circumstance". The day we are brought into this world we inherit our ancestor's experiences whether we like it or not. Being white is one of those inherited items, and it wasn't until I read this book that I really thought about what that meant. As many of us do, I took my whiteness for granted, never thinking twice about what it's like to be part of the minority in America today and never thinking about the privileges I've received solely due to my race. Wise talks about his experiences growing up that taught him about white privilege, beginning as early as elementary school. One instance that stands out the most is one dealing with the way white children and black children are punished in a school setting. Not to mention, how often teachers discriminate against their children of color labeling them dysfunctional, lazy, or slow. Wise recalls a time when he and a friend, a black friend, were reprimanded for interrupting the class's milk break and were sent to the office. The author admits that it was this experience that gave him his "first experience in the way white privilege plays out in the arena of discipline and punishment," when his friend was paddled for his poor behavior and he was not. He makes it clear that this was not a blatant act of racism however; the principal was simply obeying Wise's parent's wishes to not use physical force on their child, which they sent to him in a letter. The parents of the black child had not done so, and a black woman participating in one of Wise's workshops gave the rest of the white folks attending the answer as to why they hadn't done so. She began to explain the fear of many black mother's in this country today: "The fear that persons in positions of authority -most immediately police -may well end the life of their man-child if they misinterpret a move, a look, a glance, a comment, or a smirk" (Wise 22). This is something that I, and many white Americans like myself, have never had to worry or even think twice about. She further explained that, "...even though they aren't thrilled about allowing school officials to discipline their children in such fashions, many parents of black children feel that they have no choice. "A paddle, after all, or the flat of one's hand will sting, it may even bruise, but it will not end one's life the way a bullet will", she exclaimed (22). To many of the parents it's important to teach their children self-control at an early age in order to prevent further and or greater catastrophe down the road.
Tim Wise also recalls numerous parties he attended at the homes of other white kids where there was excessive amounts of drinking and drug usage, and when the police came they only reprimanding they got was because of the loud music being played. He's quite certain that had the parties been mostly black kids that the situation would have been dealt with much differently and much more harshly. I can relate to situations like the one Wise described because I too grew up in a white suburban community where similar parties had taken place. We would build up huge bon-fires and have coolers full of beer with at least forty to fifty kids gathered around drinking, laughing, and having a good time. It wasn't rare that a cop car would roll past every now and then, but no one seemed to pay much attention to it. They never came up and arrested people for under age drinking or possession of an illegal substance, though there was plenty to go around. It wasn't that we thought we were rebellious teenagers or that we were above the law, but we were never forced to think of the serious punishment we all could have received and therefore took our innocence for granted. The innocence many of us were only granted because of the color of our skin and the neighborhoods we had these parties in. This is one of the main points that Wise stresses throughout his book "White Like Me". He wants to teach his readers that being white in this country comes with a lot of privileges that most of us fail to recognize. And one major step towards ending the constant battle of racism is for whites to acknowledge those freedoms which are routinely taken for granted.
Racism has never been something that only occurs on playgrounds at schools, or a phase that teenagers go through, much like rebelling against authoritative figures. In many instances, a person's racism gradually increases as they mature and heightens as they reach adulthood. An example, Wise points this out when he talks about all of the racial profiling that took place after 9/11. He explains, "Immediately after that tragic day, it seemed like you couldn't find anyone other than Arab and Muslim advocacy groups willing to speak out against the notion that anyone matching the description of a Middle Eastern male should be subjected to extra scrutiny at airports, for example" (Wise 48). For many Americans, whites in particular, this heightened security and the "random searches", which most every person of Middle Eastern decent happened to get chosen for, brought a sense of comfort and reassurance that nothing tragic was going to happen to them. Wise points out that such scrutiny took place after 9/11 mainly because the hijackers were not white. At first hearing a statement like that might lead you to believe that I think that only because I am racist and I think that unjust treatment like that is necessary, but that's not the case. Wise made it quite clear to me when he pointed out, "That Arabs are being treated with suspicion after 9/11, while white men were not treated that way after Tim McVeigh's bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, is entirely, completely about white privilege" (Wise 48). This was a really powerful statement for me when I was reading the book. Once again, Wise pointed out something that perhaps to nonwhites is something that screams racism in this country, but to me was something that had never entered my mind. After reading it, however, I am appauled that such actions took place solely based on a person's race. In my opinion, it's situations much like this one that reinforce the barrier walls of racism that our country has established.
Now don't get the impression that "White Like Me" is simply a book that points out all the privileges that most whites in America take for granted and calls us out on our racist acts that many of us overlook. In the last few chapters of his book, Tim Wise discusses how whites in this country can begin to resist and stand up to racism. Wise states that whether or not we're responsible for the creation of racist acts, "We clearly live with their consequences and the privileges that result - privileges that are unjust and harmful to those who don't have them (and even to those who do...)" (62). Although there's not one clear approach to ending racism, the author points out that we can all begin by choosing to resist it. In order for such resistance to occur, we need to make ourselves more aware of what it does actually mean to be a white citizen living in America and pay attention to how it effects our daily lives. Wise continues to say that, "Our world is far too complicated, and the opportunities for collaboration far too extensive to allow for perfect - or even fairly consistent - resistance by any of us. This is all the more true for those who reap so many benefits from our status as members of dominant groups: whites, men, persons with money, able-bodied heterosexuals, Christians, whatever" (101). This statement is not meant to discourage or insult anyone, but he admits that it's important to upfront about this topic in order to "own one's collaboration". I agree with him because it seems to me that throughout history many of our country's shortcomings were in part because of ignorance, and in another part because of someone's unwillingness to face the truth so they wouldn't look like the "bad guy".
Race has always played an important role in our nation and will continue to do so. It's time for whites, as the dominant racial group, to come together and overcome our innocence. We need to recognize that many nonwhites living in America don't see this country as the "home of the free". As Tim Wise put it, "...by owning our collaboration we can regularly see our own shortcomings, place them within the larger context of our culture's subsidizing of those shortcomings, and then commit ourselves to doing better next time" (102). Sure, this sounds easy when he spells it out for us, but as many of us know it's not going to be that simple; but that's no reason to just sit back and carry on as most of us had been doing before without even knowing it.