{"id":1560,"date":"2016-08-26T19:46:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T23:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1560"},"modified":"2016-08-26T19:46:22","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T23:46:22","slug":"deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html","title":{"rendered":"Deconstructing the “Antiracism” of Tim Wise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Wise<\/a> is a white \u201cantiracist\u201d and crusader for \u201csocial justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, in an interview<\/a> that he gave to Salon, <\/em>Wise brought his \u201cexpertise\u201d on race to bear upon the Trump phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, he claims, exploited the \u201cmarket for white resentment [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s supporters, Wise assures us, are \u201ccrazy, bigoted, misogynistic\u201d and \u201cracist.\u201d Moreover, they suffer from a \u201cfragile masculinity\u201d that\u2019s threatened by the prospect of \u201cpluralism,\u201d of having to \u201cshare space\u201d with those who aren\u2019t white, Christian, heterosexual men.<\/p>\n

To these folks, Wise bluntly states, \u201cthere\u2019s a part of me that wants to say, \u2018Fuck you.\u2019\u201d He admits to wanting to tell them: \u201cI want your America to die, and I want you to be sad tomorrow, and I want you to deal with the fact painfully that your country is gone. And I don\u2019t care because your country, as you conceived it, deserved to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

First of all, the only arguments that Wise makes here are the argument ad hominem and begging the question, arguments that are as psychologically, emotionally, and politically satisfying as they are logically fallacious. Wise blasts Trump\u2019s white male supporters with the most radioactive of insults\u2014\u201cracist,\u201d \u201cbigoted,\u201d etc.\u2014while assuming <\/em>that the resentment, the \u201cwhite resentment,\u201d that he attributes to them is unjustified. Yet this is exactly what needs to be shown.<\/p>\n

Second, words like \u201cracist,\u201d \u201cmisogynistic,\u201d are associative and affective, not logical or rational. Take \u201cracism.\u201d For something that functions as the political-moral equivalent of a nuclear bomb, the deadliest of all weapons of mass destruction, \u201cracism\u201d is used in wildly disparate contexts. It has been used to describe both Hitler\u2019s policy of mass extermination of Jews and, most recently, Ellen DeGeneres\u2019 posting of a Usain Bolt meme<\/a>. Harriet Beecher Stowe\u2019s Simon Legree and Paula Deen<\/a>, the Ku Klux Klan and \u201ccapitalism,\u201d are all \u201cracist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Precisely because murder is universally recognized as the egregious offense that it is, very specific criteria must be met before a person can be found guilty of it. Moreover, it is the accuser upon whom the burden of proof rests. If \u201cmurder\u201d was employed as variously as is \u201cracism,\u201d we would all be murderers. But if \u201cmurder\u201d could mean all things to all people, it ultimately would wind up meaning nothing.<\/p>\n

This, though, is the fate that \u201cantiracists\u201d like Wise have visited upon their bread and butter, the word \u201cracism.\u201d All that people know is that to be accused of \u201cracism\u201d is to be accused of something awful. As to what, exactly, this thing is, no one knows.<\/p>\n

Third, if, <\/em>as Wise contends, there really are millions of resentful<\/em> whites, it remains an open question as to whether their resentment is justified. When we are not engaging in politics, everyone understands that resentment is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, upon hearing that a person has resentment toward, say, her husband or her parents, the average person, far from dismissing it or writing it off as a function of wickedness on the part of the resentful individual, will suppose that there is probably some<\/em> warrant for the resentment.<\/p>\n

Yet when it comes to talking about the resentment, or anger, of white men<\/em>, the kind of sensible thinking that pervades non-political, everyday life yields to the hyper-emotionality\u2014and bad faith\u2014reflected in Wise\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

Fourth, if<\/em> whites generally, and white men in particular, are<\/em> resentful, could it be that they are resentful toward people like Tim Wise<\/em>? Perhaps white men resent the campaign of demonization that the merchants of the Racism-Industrial-Complex (RIC) have been waging against them for decades? Maybe, just maybe, they\u2019re resentful toward those who would reduce their concerns for the well-being of their families, their concerns over crime, dangerous schools, terrorism, and illegal immigration to expressions of raw hatred? Maybe they\u2019re resentful over the fact that the agents of Big Racism, ideologues like Wise, tirelessly objectify them as non-persons by meeting their objections to \u201caffirmative action\u201d and other racial double-standards with, not just insults, but aspersions\u2014like \u201cracist\u201d\u2014that have the potential to spell the professional and social ruination for those at whom they\u2019re aimed?<\/p>\n

Fifth, his self-description notwithstanding, Wise and his ilk are not <\/em>\u201cantiracists.\u201d They are anti-white<\/em>. More specifically, they are anti-white<\/em> male<\/em>. If Wise and company truly were \u201cantiracists,\u201d then they would speak out against the phenomenon of black<\/em> racial animus, for blacks are exponentially more likely than are those of any other racial group to engage in interracial violence.<\/p>\n

In 2013, 85% of the 660,000 instances of interracial violence between blacks and whites involved black perpetrators and white victims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s standard operating procedure for \u201cantiracists\u201d like Wise to dismiss this inconvenient fact by noting that blacks, who comprise a significantly smaller percentage of the population than whites, are much more likely to have \u201cchance\u201d encounters with whites than vice versa, this line falls flat once it is realized that blacks attack Hispanics <\/em>only slightly less often than they attack whites: Of the 256,074 acts of interracial violence between these two groups, blacks were the perpetrators 82.5% of the time.<\/p>\n

From Wise, however, we hear not a peep.<\/p>\n

Finally, more evidence\u2014proof, really\u2014that Wise is more anti-white than anything else is that he admits to indulging in genocidal fantasies regarding \u201cwhite America\u201d (or what, until recently, was known simply as \u201cAmerica\u201d). For some of us, this confirms what we\u2019ve long suspected, that invocations of \u201cEquality\u201d and \u201cpluralism\u201d and the like\u2014moral notions that originated in Western (white) civilization\u2014constitute a smokescreen behind which \u201cantiracists\u201d and others seek to wage a kind of cold war against whites and white men. It\u2019s not that Wise (I have to believe) wishes to see anyone literally killed. This war, rather, is a war to dismantle a culture, to demoralize, to shame. Politics is war by other means, and this is the war that \u201cantiracists\u201d and \u201csocial justice\u201d crusaders have been in the process of waging for at least a half-of-a-century.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Wise\u2019s remarks regarding supporters of Donald Trump have nothing to do with either Trump or his supporters. They are revealing for his views on straight white Christian men, for these are the views that Wise has been pedaling well before Trump entered the political arena.<\/p>\n

Make no mistakes, leftists like Wise oppose Trump not<\/em> primarily because of his policy prescriptions, and not even because of the callousness with which Trump has spoken. Wise and his fellow travelers don\u2019t even necessarily oppose Trump <\/em>as a person or candidate.<\/p>\n

Rather, they oppose what they think Trump symbolizes: <\/em>The America that Tim Wise believes has long \u201cdeserved to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Wise is a white \u201cantiracist\u201d and crusader for \u201csocial justice.\u201d Recently, in an interview that he gave to Salon, Wise brought his \u201cexpertise\u201d on race to bear upon the Trump phenomenon. Donald Trump, he claims, exploited the \u201cmarket for white resentment [.]\u201d Trump\u2019s supporters, Wise assures us, are \u201ccrazy, bigoted, misogynistic\u201d and \u201cracist.\u201d Moreover,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDeconstructing the "Antiracism" of Tim Wise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deconstructing the "Antiracism" of Tim Wise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tim Wise is a white \u201cantiracist\u201d and crusader for \u201csocial justice.\u201d Recently, in an interview that he gave to Salon, Wise brought his \u201cexpertise\u201d on race to bear upon the Trump phenomenon. Donald Trump, he claims, exploited the \u201cmarket for white resentment [.]\u201d Trump\u2019s supporters, Wise assures us, are \u201ccrazy, bigoted, misogynistic\u201d and \u201cracist.\u201d Moreover,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-26T23:46:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Deconstructing the \"Antiracism\" of Tim Wise","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Deconstructing the \"Antiracism\" of Tim Wise","og_description":"Tim Wise is a white \u201cantiracist\u201d and crusader for \u201csocial justice.\u201d Recently, in an interview that he gave to Salon, Wise brought his \u201cexpertise\u201d on race to bear upon the Trump phenomenon. Donald Trump, he claims, exploited the \u201cmarket for white resentment [.]\u201d Trump\u2019s supporters, Wise assures us, are \u201ccrazy, bigoted, misogynistic\u201d and \u201cracist.\u201d Moreover,…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2016-08-26T23:46:22+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html","name":"Deconstructing the \"Antiracism\" of Tim Wise","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-08-26T23:46:22+00:00","dateModified":"2016-08-26T23:46:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/08\/deconstructing-antiracism-tim-wise.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Deconstructing the “Antiracism” of Tim Wise"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1561,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions\/1561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}