What Meritoracy? Tim Wise Is Spot On As Usual
“If social justice is to be achieved it won’t be because black and brown people persuaded or convinced conflicted and ambivalent white people of anything at all.
It will be because white people make the case to reluctant and recalcitrant white folks that a just society and more perfect union isn’t about bestowing the benefits of freedom on black and brown people at the expense of white people, it’s about ‘liberty and justice for all’.”
What sets Tim Wise apart as a truly effective antiracist, is his unique and uncanny ability to take the case for social and racial justice, as articulated by black people, and communicate and convey the case unaltered and unmolested to other white people, in tact.
What he does with Janes Baldwin’s take on the myth of the American meritocracy is nothing short of masterful….
Wise’s delivery is exquisite and eloquent, without giving ground on the confrontational power and forcefulness of Baldwin’s message.
We need more of what Wise has to offer and deliver….
BTW
If you don’t know who James Baldwin was or what he was about, you’re part of the problem.
Do your own research!
06/29/2020 @ 11:24 am
With all due respect to Tim Wise, James Baldwin said it best. Every white person needs to watch the doc on James Baldwin: I am Not Your Negro. It was free streaming on PBS site for awhile, maybe still is.
06/29/2020 @ 12:10 pm
@Greenheron;
Can’t disagree…
My point here is that for a variety of reasons, too many white folks won’t listen or absorb the messages coming from black and brown people while they would more readily accept and listen to another white person deliver the same messages.
It’s not enough to tell reluctant, recalcitrant, ambivalent, and conflicted white folks to watch or listen to such and such…
The effective antiracist must learn to do what Tim Wise is doing, take an active participatory role in delivering the messages of black and brown people in tact, to non receptive white folks….
It may be my job to make or articulate the case, but it is your job to deliver it to people I can’t reach….
We’re on the same team, but at different positions…
06/29/2020 @ 12:36 pm
White people are starting to listen, more than listen, are seeking information we were not provided in school. James Baldwin is EXACTLY who we need to see and hear. He is a polite yet eloquent force, who slices the jugular in a way you don’t even feel until you see your blood. As the kids say: SLAY. 🙂
More white people are ready for that than you think. I wish we were ready earlier and am sad that it feels like I’m on the tail end of a beginning that I might not get to see much of. Did you see John Lewis visiting Black Lives Matter Plaza? He’s living with a terminal diagnosis, preparing to go into that long night, yet while he is still here, he stands on Black Live Matter Plaza in clear view of Trump’s White House. His face, surgical mask off, reflects all of it, struggle and victory both.
“It is very moving, very moving, very impressive. I think what the people in DC and around the nation are sending a mighty, powerful and strong message to the world that WE WILL GET THERE.” –Congressman John Lewis
Okey dokey, I’ve got a half finished drawing of a howling sharp toothed possum on the table that won’t draw itself. Greenheron, over and out <3
06/30/2020 @ 4:23 am
@Greenheron;
“White people are starting to listen…
James Baldwin is EXACTLY who we need to see and hear. He is a polite yet eloquent force ..”
Some white folks could use a bit of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, and Art Blakey along with the “polite yet eloquent” forcefulness of James Baldwin.
If I’m “too polite” Baldwin is a creampuff……
Again, my point is that there are white folks who will “listen” to you well ahead of giving me, or James Baldwin, their attention.
That’s what you can take away from any talk given by Tim Wise…
BTW: If you can put the instruments with the names of the musicians I listed without help from the ‘Google machine’, you’re truly a force to be reckoned with in your own right.
This is the ‘must see’ debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, enjoy:
06/30/2020 @ 10:31 am
Apparently its been such a long time that you forgot what a music freak I am, so of course I know all those jazz guys. Want a similar quiz on old dead blind bluesmen and women? 😉 During Black History month, we work on researching black musicians, then create portraits. Most start the project arguing for a favorite contemporary musician, but because it’s history month, a requirement is that they be dead musicians before their time, especially women, musicians they have never heard of. They have to bring in examples to play in class while we work. Inevitably, someone picks Jimi and I try not to laugh as he is explained to me.
Re: Frost/Baldwin interview, excellent. That is also snippeted in the Baldwin doc.
Have you been following Yamiche Alcindor, the PBS White House correspondent? She makes like Trump is a nail and hammers him down through the wood and out the other side. He seethes and displays how much he hates being confronted by a black woman in a sturdy body he would not consider hot, who is a hundred times smarter than he is. He lobs insults at her and they roll off, as she just keeps steamrolling over him. She’s developed a Twitter cult following and goes by first name,Yamiche, climbing up there with Cher, Madonna,Tina, and Dolly. Watching her do this in these horrible Trumpian times is a soothing satisfying balm, if you need of one.
06/30/2020 @ 12:25 pm
@Greenheron;
“Apparently its been such a long time that you forgot what a music freak I am.”
Not hardly.. .
You got the quiz BECAUSE I remember your music creds and chops which would be the basis for a better understanding of my assertion that,
too many white folks evade and avoid voluntary exposure to black culture and the black experience.
Miles and ‘Trane, et al expressed a wide range of the movement’s emotions through the messages in their music….
Re Yamiche, You can tell he’s been had when he throws the ‘nasty question’
accusation at her.
.Too bad the White House Press Corps hasn’t developed sufficient solidarity to get behind a single line of questioning and stick with it.
They behave like independent contractors competing for a bid on a Pulitzer Prize….
I believe they’d be much stronger if they stood together more frequently.