Tim Wise Talks About WLM on HuffPost
Tim Wise went on HuffPost Live hosted by Marc Lamont Hill to discuss the MEF produced film White Like Me. They were joined by Georgetown Sociology Professor Michael Eric Dyson (I Am A Man) and two white supremacists, Matthew Heimbach and Jared Taylor.
While the presence of the white supremacists made for arresting media it also, unfortunately, allows the average white viewer to excuse themselves from the discussion because they can fairly say they are not guilty of the unabashed racism those two guys spew. It also sets up a false dichotomy. This was not two equally matched sides arguing the validity of their theories.
On one hand you have two men, Wise and Dyson, talking about the frustration of discussing race with a culture that doesn’t recognize white privilege and/or its role in maintaining racial inequity and injustice. On the other hand, the counterpoint is two white men who don’t disagree that those conditions exist…they’re just terrified that they are at risk.
It is frustrating that the humane advocacy of Wise and Dyson is diminished by the cage-match theatrics Huffington Post seemed to be going for.
