The system of white supremacy is intended to make folks of color doubt themselves, their intelligence, their abilities, their very sanity. And so it's important to remember that folks of color know their own realities.
Tim WisePrecisely because white denial has long trumped claims of racism, people of color tend to underreport their experiences with racial bias rather than exaggerate them.
Tim WiseIf you know the history of the whole concept of whiteness if you know the history of the whole concept of the white race, where it came from and for what reason you know that it was a trick, and it's worked brilliantly. You see, prior to the mid to late 1600s, in the colonies of what would become the United States, there was no such thing as the white race. Those of us of European descent did not refer to ourselves by that term really ever before then.
Tim WisePeople never hurt others in moments of personal strength and bravery, when they are feeling good about themselves, when they are strong and confident. If we spent all of our waking moments in that place, then fighting for social justice would be redundant; we would simply have social justice and be done with it, and we could all go swimming, or fishing, or bowling, or dancing, or whatever people do. But it is because we spend so much of our time in that other place, that place of diminished capacity, of flagging energy, or wavering and somewhat flaccid commitment, that we have to be careful.
Tim WiseAnd let's just be honest, there is no such place called 'justice,' if by that we envision a finish line, or a point at which the battle is won and the need to continue the struggle over with. After all, even when you succeed in obtaining a measure of justice, you're always forced to mobilize to defend that which you've won. There is no looming vacation. But there is redemption in struggle.
Tim WiseStuff Happens.โ Thatโs the G-rated version. Thatโs a bumper sticker that only a straight white upper middle class male could have made. Because anyone who isnโt straight, anyone who isnโt male, anyone who isnโt white, anyone who isnโt upper middle class knows that stuff doesnโt just happen. Stuff gets done by people to people. Nothing is a coincidence. Nothing is random. This isnโt osmosis. And so we act as if itโs this passive thing, but yet thatโs not the case.
Tim Wise