White people think they know what’s going on in black
people’s lives, Tim Wise told a crowd at Rackham Auditorium
last night.

But he went on to say that when white people ignore the fact
that people of color experience racism on a daily basis —
when whites say it isn’t a big deal anymore — that
denial is a form of racism.

Wise, who is a senior advisor to the Fisk University Race
Relations Institute, spoke yesterday on the continuance of racism
in American society at a Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Symposium event titled, “Beyond Diversity: Challenging Racism
in an Age of Backlash.”

At the event, Wise both urged students to acknowledge how
society implicitly promotes racist thinking and to rebel against
that thinking.

He said of his lecture, “This is not a critique about
white people, this is a critique on what living in a society that
encourages such ignorance does to white people.”

Wise began his lecture by addressing the fact that he is a white
man and that black civil rights activists and speakers before him
have said the same messages he planned on discussing. Yet he added,
“Because I am a white man, I can say to you what the people
of color have been trying to say, but have been ignored.”

He then discussed the existence of racism through denial by
citing surveys that show only 6 percent of white Americans believe
racism is still a significant problem. He then compared that number
to how 12 percent of Americans believe Elvis is still alive.

“We are twice as likely to believe Elvis is still alive
than we are to believe what colored people tell us, they experience
(racism) on a daily basis. That, my friends, is an abiding
delusion.”

In the past, Wise’s speeches have drawn criticism from
students, even where they have evoked praise.

LSA senior Ruben Duran, who has heard Wise speak on previous
accounts, said he disagreed with Wise’s beliefs that
race-conscious admissions policies tend to admit academically
qualified students to the University.

“Basically, the University is conceding that ... their
definition of racial minorities are underachievers and universally,
as a whole, require a leg up,” Duran said.

Later in his lecture, Wise added that because American society
is so segregated, whites think that they understand their reality
and they feel they even understand what other races’
realities are like.

“When people of color say, ‘This is what is
happening to me,’ we say, ‘No, it’s not.
You’re exaggerating.” The implicit subtext implies
‘I know your reality better than you know your reality, so
trust me and not your lying eyes.’ And my friends, that
denial is a form of racism,” Wise said.

But for Wise, what was more alarming was how this denial was
intergenerational.

He said whites were practicing denial back in the 1930s when
black people were not allowed equal access to jobs, public
facilities and schools. This trend has continued when white people
persistently think things are fine, Wise said.

“But when white folks are saying it isn’t a big deal
anymore ... we are basically saying colored folks as a whole
don’t know truth from fiction,” Wise said.

Wise also discussed what he called the “flip-side”
of racism — privilege — then adding that whites have
always been the most privileged in society and continue to expect
those privileges, while other races suffer.

He gave the example of University students who claimed ethnic
minority students were stealing seats from white students under
race-conscious admissions.

But Wise questioned how white students knew less qualified
minority applicants were taking their spots when they had no access
to student transcripts.

“How do they know they are under-qualified students?
It’s an assumption.”

He also criticized lawyers and the U.S. Supreme Court who, he
said, looked only at the 20 points given to people of color and
consequentially ignored the points given to certain areas and
schools — which predominately have white students, he
added.

Yet no one criticized those areas of the admission system, he
said.

Wise said the notion of privileges to whites is so detrimental
to society that they result into whites making racial assumptions
about minority groups, especially when they commit crimes.

At the same time, whites make no assumptions of one another when
they carry out acts like the Oklahoma City bombing, he said.

“White folks get to do crazy things and they still are
individuals,” Wise said.