Tim Wise

Early life and education

Wise was born in Nashville, Tennessee, to Michael Julius Wise and LuCinda Anne (née McLean) Wise. His paternal grandfather was Jewish (of Russian origin), while the rest of his ancestry is northern European, including some Scottish. Wise has said that when he was about 12 years old his synagogue was attacked by white supremacists. Wise attended public schools in Nashville, graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1986. In high school he was student body vice-president and a member of one of the top high school debate teams in the United States. Wise attended college at Tulane University in New Orleans and received his B.A. there, with a major in Political Science and a minor in Latin American Studies. While a student, he was a leader in the campus anti-apartheid 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 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.

1990s

After graduating in 1990, Wise started his work as an anti-racism activist after receiving training from the New Orleans-based People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. Wise began his anti-racism work first as a youth coordinator, and then associate director, of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, the largest of the various organizations founded for the purpose of defeating political candidate David Duke 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 and New Orleans, including the Louisiana Coalition for Tax Justice, the Louisiana Injured Worker's Union and Agenda for Children, where he worked as a policy analyst and community organizer in New Orleans public housing.

In 1995, Wise began lecturing around the country on the issues of racism, criticizing white privilege (his own included) and proposing his solutions. The following year, he returned to his hometown Nashville, and he continued his work around the US, gaining a national reputation for his work in defense of affirmative action.

2000s

From 1999 to 2003, Wise served as an advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute. Wise received the 2002 National Youth Advocacy Coalition's Social Justice Impact Award. He has appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including The Montel Williams Show, Donahue, Paula Zahn NOW, MSNBC Live, and ABC's 20/20, arguing the case for affirmative action and to discuss the issue of white privilege and racism in America.

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, and that subtle, impersonal, and even ostensibly race-neutral policies contribute to racism and racial inequality today.

2010s

In multi-racial societies such as the U.S., Wise argues that all people (white or people of color) will have internalized various elements of racist thinking. However just because society has been conditioned this way does not mean that society is committed to racist thinking. Wise argues that members of society can challenge this conditioning and be taught to believe in equality.

In 2010, Utne Reader magazine listed Wise as one of the "25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World."

In 2013, Wise posted a commentary on his Facebook page describing the hate mail and death threats he receives, and addressing the people who troll his site. Many commenters criticized the commentary as reflecting white privilege, and questioned his role in the discussion of race in the United States. One commenter found Wise's remarks demeaning to anti-racist work done by people of color. Two others compared Wise to Hugo Schwyzer, who was famous in feminist circles but later exposed for misogynistic attitudes. Wise posted a response on Facebook saying in part, "I won't try and defend the tone of most of my remarks. It was inappropriate. Period. [...] I fell into the same kind of vitriolic and sometimes personal attack mode that had gotten me angry in the first place. I shouldn't have. I will strive to do better."

Wise starred in a 2013 documentary entitled White Like Me.

Personal life

After living in New Orleans for ten years, Wise relocated to his native Nashville in 1996. In 1998, he married Kristy Cason. Together they have two daughters, Ashton (b. 2001) and Rachel (b. 2003). Wise has referred to himself as Jewish and as an anti-Zionist Jew but does not practice Judaism.

Written works

Video releases

In addition to books and essays Wise has produced a DVD titled On White Privilege: Racism, White Denial & the Costs of Inequality and a double-CD entitled The Audacity of Truth: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.