"White Like Me"

Based on the chapter you read, do you agree with these assertions? Does racism and privelege benefit whites? Did you think the chapter was convincing even though it used anecdotal rather than statistical evidence? How does your own personal experience match up or relate to what Wise describes?

After reading the chapter titled "Privilege" of this book I was kind of annoyed. I feel like this author kind of exaggerated certain aspects to frame his 'stories' in a way that would put a twist on them that involved racism. I honestly don't see a correlation between some of these stories and to racism. For example, Tim Wise talks about a time when he was permitted to enter a classroom after a test had begun, he connects this to the concept that he must have not been turned away because of the fact that he is white. I see absolutely no way how this connects. And in my own experience have seen the exact opposite occur while taking the ACT.

I feel like Tim Wise is trying to make me feel guilty for being white and in fact chooses a quote by James Baldwin that exemplifies exactly this idea, "guilt is a luxury." The source of this quote is Playboy and this shows how Wise needed to look to outlandish sources in order to find evidence that supported this thesis.

While I do recognize some of the 'benefits' and 'priviliges' that Wise nods to, I don't think it is fair to compare these socially and culturally constructed notions, to cases involving the law and legality. His examples are a stretch to say the least.

One thing that I found interesting was his ideas regarding teachers. On page 20 and 21 Wise explains how our nation could be much more fair if all educators were not racist and were fair. However, one thing from this section that I don't neccisarily agree with the idea that whites/asians try harder or perform better than lations/blacks. I feel like the kids I know who aren't white try harder than the white kids in school because they often feel like they have something to overcome or their parents 'want better for them.'

All in all, I feel like Wise had some good points and I appreciated that he used stories rather than statistics to get his point accross, but I think that he is being slightly dramatic in his linking of the stories to racism. I don't think racism in our country at this point of time is as bad as Wise framed it to be. There is still a lot of room for improvement in the social and cultural sense, but in a legal sense things are fair in the United States.