★★★ (of 5)

• Full Title: White Like Me: Reflections On Race From A Privileged Son
• Author: Tim Wise
• Year: 2005 (mine was 2005 trade paperback)
• Pages: 155
• Genre: Nonfiction
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press
• ISBN 978-1-933368-99-3 (trade paperback)
• Wikipedia page
• Author’s Wikipedia page

 

Summary

With its title based on Black Like Me (1961, John Howard Griffin), activist Tim Wise’s White Like Me is, according to the preface “at least a partial answer to” a question Wise is asked often: why work against a system that’s set up for his benefit? Or, the related question: “Dear God, what the hell happened to you?” In other words, if you’re white, and you believe that white privilege is real, why would you ever want to end it?

Wise draws from a wide range of personal anecdotes regarding race and racism and attempts to show that white privilege is a real, tangible thing, but also to examine race in the United States and “the work that remains to be done in the centuries-long struggle for racial equity and justice in this land.”

“The only difference, really, between me and any other white person reading this book is that I’m just egotistical or stupid enough to ‘put my stuff in the street’ as some might say, while most white folks are taught to remain quiet about race, to share nothing, to never think about it, let alone discuss it openly.”

—page viii

 

Commentary

Wise’s style is approachable, as opposed to academic. He doesn’t cite studies or statistics, nor does he list endless race-based incidents that are often overworked any time this topic arises. He merely recounts true (he says) events in his own life, or conversations he recalls, and draws conclusions based on these. Due to this, I think the book might be far more likely to reach its intended audience — which appears to be white people who haven’t given a lot of thought to the issue (or who have, but aren’t yet convinced).

I’m certain I wasn’t the intended audience; every point Wise tried to make, I was already convinced of. And if I wasn’t, it would require far more than anecdotes and dubious conclusions to convince me. But many people are convinced by anecdotes, and many people quickly shy away from studies, reports, statistics, and lists. (In other words, I know that I’m an outlier.)

The book is easy to read. The stories are interesting — sometimes funny, or sad, or even both. Some had predictable outcomes (and Wise acknowledges this), while others were startling. I think it was worth reading even if there was nothing left to convince me of.

I would, however, be very curious at the average black (or Latinx, or Asian, or indigenous, etc.) person’s reaction to reading this book.

 

Points Off For...

I tried to imagine a person reading this book who doesn’t believe that racism exists, someone who can’t admit to white privilege because they also won’t admit to the structural power imbalances in our society. And then I tried to imagine whether that person would be convinced by anything Wise wrote. I’m certain I wouldn’t have been convinced. Because quite a number of the anecdotes in the book go like this: “A white person did this thing, and got away with it. Imagine if it had been a black man!” Or “Here’s an example of a poor white person who worked his way to the top, but it simply wouldn’t have worked out that way if he was black.”

Because the unconvinced can find anecdotes too, and in fact they have been trotting them out for years. “Look at [name of black person]!” they’ll say. “He worked his way up from nothing and now he’s a Cabinet member!” Or “What about [some poor white person] who’s in prison right now! Where’s his white privilege?” Please don’t misunderstand; I’m not saying their anecdotes mean anything either. I only mean that these aren’t the kind of arguments that convince me — on either side.

But maybe the biggest thing is that I expected the book to be more powerful, or more outstanding, or more... something, and it really wasn’t. Yes, parts were good and parts were interesting, but the overall effect — to me — wasn’t quite as invigorating as I had hoped it would be.

Another thing (for which I won’t take off a point, but which bothered me nonetheless) is that yet again most of the talking points are aimed at white people in white families — and so much of the discussion about race, ethnicity, racism, etc., completely ignores mixed families like mine. For example, on page 90, Wise writes about white anti-racists confronting white racists and how important it is to “love” them, to connect with them... Which almost makes sense if one has nothing to lose because one is white. But I always want to ask if the answer would be different if the writer had considered mixed families. I don’t do a lot of intentional hanging out with racists, mainly because my wife and children are people of color and so we really don’t know a lot of racists (and stridently avoid the few we’ve uncovered).

 

White Like Tim

I think it’s fair to point out, as Wise does in this book, that his experience isn’t exactly the same as the typical “white” American. For example, his grandfather was Jewish (of Russian origin), which puts Wise in the crosshairs of white supremacists just as much as people of color, despite his relative lack of melanin. Also, his mother enrolled him in a mostly black preschool, which was fairly unusual in Nashville in the early 1970s.

Then again, I really don’t know what the “typical” white American experience is like; I’m pretty sure I didn’t have it either. I went to preschool and kindergarten in Tokyo, for example, and didn’t live in the mainland U.S. until I was six years old. I don’t think it was typical that my best friend up to that point was someone with an intellectual disability, that none of my babysitters or teachers had been white, or that the first church I’d attended was for Deaf people. As with Wise, I don’t think any of this gives me any special superpowers; if anything it makes it more difficult for me to relate to other people who assume from appearance that I’m just like them.

 

Defining Racism

One thing I found interesting, given that earlier this year I wrote about the difficulties in defining racism (and attempted to construct my own definition), is that Wise provided a fairly concise definition in this book:

“[Racism is] a socially constructed power imbalance at the institutional level, which then fosters and perpetuates individual level bias. Racists are made, and their racism sustained by way of unjust social arrangements that lead some to conclude those arrangements must be natural, or the result of truly different aptitudes and values between whites and people of color.”

—page 144

 

Conclusion

I would recommend this book to general readers, if only to see what they have to say.

 

 

---

---

comments powered by Disqus