Tim Wise spends a significant portion of the book talking
about his heritage and whether or not his family was involved in slave
ownership but I do not think that it was completely necessary. Even though his
family did own slaves he himself did not, absolving any personal responsibility
he should have. His CEO analogy works for all of humanity not him personally
which is the way he approaches the problem. For people to look back into their family
trees to discover if they have a history is interesting but I do not feel that
it is necessary in the effort to improve race relations moving forward. It
almost seemed that he spoke about his interactions with black people in his
youth and his parents conceiving him in an act of antislavery to liberate himself
from his family’s unfortunate past. To claim to be “collateral damage” to the
institutional issues and problems of the Tennessee schools system is insulting
to the black people who actually underwent racial discrimination.
Wise seems to avoid the major issues of race
relations through anecdotes from his youth, his recess experience and the
members of his YMCA basketball team. I feel that there is a better approach to
race relations than just explaining his stories. Granted Tim Wise is white so
you have to take that into account when you read and understand his life
experiences but he seems to skim over the issues in a paragraph or two without
really getting into the issue. Our personal accounts of Race and our experiences
are not really that important in the grand scheme of things, and I am hopeful
the dynamic and approach of the book is going to change but to this point I
have not been impressed. Over and out.
