White Like Me - Tim Wise

• 5 sentences summarizing the main idea

In his book, Tim Wise discusses his life experiences in order to prove to the reader that white privilege is real. He opens up to the reader and shares ideas and tells opinions that most likely offend many white people in society. If the reader is willing, however, to see flaws in the white population, Wise serves as a microscope. He offers a medium through which to look at my own race and see not only the ways in which I am privileged, but also the ways in which I can use my privilege to end racism.

• 4 key quotes

“ It is how we bear the past that matters, and in many ways it is all that differentiates us.” (2)

“ Aside from the natural aversion to torture that animates most reactions to my hypothetical, the most common response is one of sheer panic, followed by heartfelt concerns that if teachers who believed poor kids or kids of color were less capable were to be fired, there would be a teacher shortage! As if a shortage of race and class-biased educators would be a bad thing.” (20)

“ Though I am hardly proud of it, the simple fact is, I’ve broken plenty of laws and some that would easily, if detected, have resulted in my long-term incarceration and sent my life in a fundamentally different direction.” (36)

“ But we were also warned to stay away from certain neighborhoods, and to travel in groups as well, because not all of New Orleans was as safe as Uptown, where the university was located.” (47)

• 3 key terms

“ multiculturalism” – 19 - the mix of cultures in the classroom and the world; understanding/accepting all

“Naturalization Act of 1790” – 11- said that all white people and only white people were be considered citizens

“flawed profiling” – 52 – when racial profiling is inaccurate to the person

• 2 connections

- When Wise talks about his experiences at Tulane, I could not help but to see myself at Baylor. When we came to orientation, we were first instructed to travel in groups, not leave campus, and avoid particular areas of Waco. Though administration requires such instruction for safety purposes, some of the feelings seemed unwarranted to me. In my first week here, my roommate wouldn’t go to the gas station with me because African American men were outside of it. Coming from the city I lived in, I was unaware that particular areas were seen as “bad” because black people were there. It makes me sick to think that my own friends profile people when we’re not even in the parking lot yet; they judge completely by looking through the glass at the color of a person’s skin.
- When Wise shared his experiences with escaping punishment by law, I was brought back to my high school days. In my high school, we were metal detected and searched every morning before we could enter the building. More often than not, I had items in my bag that I shouldn’t have, and yet, I never got in trouble. The officers would flirt with me and send me on my way. African American students, however, would be sent to the dean and usually dealt with security when they were found to have even a butter knife in their lunches. It was always clear that security expected bad from the black students, regardless of any other aspect of the students’ personalities.

1 question

How, as a teacher, would you make yourself “colorblind” so as to fight the white privilege and treat your students with the same respect and have the same expectations of each student, regardless of his/her race?