MACON – Leading anti-racist writer and educator Tim Wise will visit Mercer University April 1 to deliver a presentation, titled “Beyond Diversity: Challenging Racism,” at 6 p.m. in the Medical School Auditorium on the Macon campus.
The event was initiated by the Department of Women's and Gender Studies and is co-sponsored by the Mercer Lyceum, QuadWorks, the Student Government Association's Academic Affairs Committee, the TRIO Programs/Minority Affairs Office, the Center for Collaborative Journalism and departments of Africana studies, anthropology and cultural studies.
“I am so pleased to collaborate on this venture because of the unique perspective that Tim Wise brings to the subject matter of racial inequity and injustice in America,” said Director of Federal TRIO Programs Dr. Michelle A. Currie.
“Rarely has a member of the majority racial group discussed or acknowledged what well-known Critical Race Theorist Derrick Bell calls 'white privilege.' An honest exploration of this topic will not only promote a supportive institutional climate but offer our students of all races a more comprehensive understanding of their environment, which is the first step on the road to racial harmony.”
Wise, who has been named one of “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World” by Utne Reader, has spoken in all 50 states, on over 800 college and high school campuses, and to community groups across the nation, as well as internationally in Canada and Bermuda. He raises issues related to comparative racism, race and education, racism and religion, and racism in the labor market. He has also provided anti-racism training in educational, health care, corporate, government, entertainment, military and law enforcement settings.
Wise is the author of six books, with his seventh, The Culture of Cruelty: How America's Elite Demonize the Poor, Valorize the Rich and Jeopardize the Future, set to be released later this year. He has contributed essays to over 25 books, and his writings have appeared in dozens of popular, professional and scholarly journals.
He has served in various faculty and advisory roles at Smith College for Social Work in Northampton, Mass., the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. and the Fisk University Race Relations Institute in Nashville. In the early 1990s, he was youth coordinator and associate director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, the largest of many groups organized to defeat neo-Nazi political candidate David Duke.
Wise has appeared on hundreds of television and radio programs and is a regular contributor to discussions about race on CNN.
He graduated from Tulane University in 1990 and received anti-racism training from the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond in New Orleans.
