Word to the Wise (Tim Wise, that is)
by Shannon Joyce Prince
"The conflation of aesthetics with morality,
geography with intelligence, and class with worth is just as foul coming from
Tim Wise as it is coming from Bill Cosby."
In writing to condemn an attitude held by a white
anti-racist activist I respect, I must begin with the words of William Lloyd
Garrison, another white activist who is his intellectual antecedent. Garrison said, "Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions
and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for
their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral
courage." Tim Wise is clearly a great
and good man and one of the nation's foremost anti-racist activists, yet his
recent blog post "This
is how fascism comes: reflections on the cost of silence" reveals not only
a powerful lack of discernment but also an intolerably ugly hatefulness.
I'll
address the lack of discernment first.
In an election between two men who have voiced smiling, unequivocal
commitment to apartheid Israel, who each, while congressmen, voted to enlarge
the scale of the war in Iraq, one of whom considers Vietnamese people to be
g**ks, the other of whom merrily assures America that racism is 90% over and
repeatedly chastises blacks for being lazy whiners who feed their children cold
fried chicken for breakfast, Tim Wise claims that fascism will come because of
the sentiments of those who support McCain as opposed to Obama. Clearly, when these are the only two viable choices
fascism is already here. Indeed, the
original definition of fascism was a strong coalition between business and
government, yet many labor under the delusion that because we get to pick which
of two men preselected by oligarchic CEOs and sponsored by Wall Street's most
powerful corporations will run the country, we have a democracy. We don't get to question the system, just
who runs it. The media makes so much of
this small choice to hide the fact that it is the only choice we are
permitted. By portraying voting as a
civic duty, as opposed to a quick, infrequent ritual, citizens are relieved of
their real, quotidian duties to their society.
In such a context, voting for Obama over McCain is not choosing the
lesser of two evils, it's simply the perpetuation of an evil system that
succeeds as an illusion because one candidate is allowed a more progressive
guise than the other.
"To cruelly mock those whose way of life is
different from your own and to ascribe to such people all the failings of
American society is hateful and unacceptable."
However,
what filled me with such visceral disgust at "This is how fascism comes" is the
full flowering of a usually subtle prejudice I've tried to overlook in Tim
Wise's writings since they are otherwise intelligent, well researched,
insightful, and compassionate. This
prejudice is the conflation of aesthetics with morality, geography with
intelligence, and class with worth that is just as foul coming from Tim Wise as
it is coming from Bill Cosby. There's
no need for me to enumerate all the stereotypical qualities of a fascist that
Tim Wise lists: wearing "What Would Jesus Do" bracelets, being a Nascar fan,
living in a small town, drinking Pabst beer, etc. Suffice it to say that almost everything he lists has no bearing
on how intelligent, morally sound, politically astute, or racist or anti-racist
someone is. Furthermore, the list is
unnuanced. No distinction is made, for
example, between feeling homosexual acts are wrong and being homophobic, or
between being a devout student of the Bible and using distortions of the Bible
as a way to mistreat others. To cruelly
mock those whose way of life is different from your own and to ascribe to such
people all the failings of American society is hateful and unacceptable -
particularly from someone who considers himself liberal and progressive.
As someone who lives in a white gated
community, grew up surrounded by multi-degreed adults (including both of my
parents), and attended a predominantly white, college preparatory, private
school from kindergarten through twelfth grade in one of America's largest
cities before entering Dartmouth College, an Ivy League university in New
Hampshire, America's second whitest state, I can say with confidence that
almost all the bigots I've met have been well read, well traveled, and well
off. Some of them even voted Democrat
and were addicted to the Colbert Report.
All of them were too savvy to sell Obama Waffles, too eloquent to use
the "n-word," and too stylish to sport a trucker cap, but they were bigots all
the same.
"Almost all the bigots I've met have been
well read, well traveled, and well off."
Similarly,
many of the most articulate (which is not to say grammatical) and radical
(which doesn't mean they read Counterpunch) white people I know have been poor
and/or religious and/or rural white people like the almost entirely white,
rural, lower class non-professional staff at Dartmouth. In discussions I've had with these
individuals I've found them to be adept recognizers of non-white
disenfranchisement, white privilege, and the classism both whites and
non-whites suffer. Many of them
regularly engage in activities such as protesting the sexual abuse suffered by
migrant Mexican female strawberry pickers.
These people are not exceptions to the rule, but evidence of the fact
that all communities produce a diversity of good and evil, wise and
ignorant. They are people who are
always rendered invisible because they have the superficial qualities
progressives like to mock despite possessing the moral values progressives
claim to honor.
I myself fall into at least one of the
demographics Tim Wise attacks - I'm a creationist who believes the world was
literally made in six days. Does that
somehow undermine my anti-racist activism?
Does it make me too stupid to attend Dartmouth? Does it tell you how I treat people, what
books I read, how I vote (hint - I'm not a Republican), where I like to travel,
or what passions stir me? Nothing
unrelated to creationism can be inferred about me from the fact that I'm a
creationist - only ignorant people who rely on stereotypes as opposed to deep
thinking would argue otherwise.
"All communities produce a diversity of good
and evil, wise and ignorant."
It
might seem odd that I am defending white people in Black Agenda Report, but I
do so because of my blackness. While
whiteness was constructed as a way to rob others of their humanity, blackness
has never been about acquiring humanity vampire-style by taking it from
others. It is an expression of both my
blackness and my humanity that I defend the humanity of others.
When
Tim Wise, Joe Baegeant, Barbara Ehrenreich, and so many other "progressives"
dehumanize those who are different and mock the poor, rural, or Christian and
then wonder why the same people they regularly attack as Neanderthals to
ignorant to vote in their own self interest and obsessed with values that are
hollow at best and sinister at worst won't join their political party, they
show that the emperor has no clothes - that the "tolerant" tolerate a very
small spectrum of lifestyles. Tim Wise
is one of the most heroic and courageous anti-racist activists I've ever had the
privilege of reading. In fact, I
frequently cite him as a source in my own writings, inspired by his lucid
work. Unfortunately, neither his
courage nor his heroism make valid or accurate his hate.
Ms. Prince can be contacted
at Shannon.J.Prince@Dartmouth.EDU This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots,
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