ipl-logo

Summary Of Between Barack And A Hard Place By Tim Wise

425 Words2 Pages

Published soon after President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, Tim Wise’s book, Between Barack and a Hard Place, argues that contrary to the largely held white belief, the election of our nation’s first African American president is a long way away from the end of racism in the United States. Wise suggests that instead of signifying a victory over racism, the election of Barack Obama may even signal the emergence of an entirely new type of racism altogether. Between Barack and a Hard Place examines contemporary white denial and the reality of modern racism by investigating different forms racism present in income and jobs, housing, education, criminal justice and the law, and health care. In light of Obama’s victory, the book aims to expose the …show more content…

In his book, Wise agrees with the socially fabricated nature of race and even goes further to question how race had gained its weighty significance. He states, “Race has meaning not because there are ‘white genes,’ or ‘Asian genes,’ or ‘black blood’ or ‘Latino blood,’ but because it has been given meaning in the laws and customs of a society” (Wise 13). Following this reasoning, even if those being oppressed are not any different from the oppressor biologically, it is social circumstances which dictate the meaning of race. With the social terms of race in mind, Wise provided two definitions of racism: 1) “An ideological belief in the racial or cultural superiority or inferiority of certain people defined racially as members of a group” 2) “A system of inequity based on race, or perceived racial difference” (Wise 15). These definitions are important to keep in mind considering [according to a survey for CNN and Essence magazine] “only 1 in 9 whites believe racial discrimination against blacks is still a very serious problem” (Wise 31). Considering that systematic racial discrimination continues to oppress people of color in our nation, the widespread skepticism concerning the existence of racism cannot possibly be due to the absence of present-day racial inequity. However, this skepticism may in fact be due to our inability to recognize an entirely new form of racism– a racism which Wise dubs ‘Racism

Show More
Related
861 Words | 4 Pages

The Civil War is one of the bloodiest wars in American history, but what started it? What did it lead to? In the book, “Two Miserable Presidents”, by Steve Sheinkin, the author explains events that led up to the civil war and how they were finally resolved through the leadership of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout the book, we learn about the causes of the Civil War through anecdotes and we learn “everything your schoolbooks didn’t tell you about the Civil War.” He gives a humorous 13 step guide in ripping a country in two and names each section of the book a with a captivating yet true title.

Read More
1529 Words | 7 Pages

Racism stems from information already possessed about a certain race. Once racism is present within a person, it seems that the hatred stems so deep that it is hard to change it. Throughout Tatum's piece she does speak of other minorities, but, the basis of her argument surrounds African Americans. Contradicting Tatum’s article, Lee states that “racial

Read More
665 Words | 3 Pages

The film, White Like Me is based on the works of Tim Wise, an American anti-racism activist and writer. The documentary explores racism in the United States through the concepts of white privileged and racial identity by Wise’s own experiences. He starts off by saying that the United States has overcome a lot of issues involving race from slavery to electing an African-American as president, but he disproves that theory by stating that racial inequality and racial bias still exists. Wise emphasizes that when the issues are ignored not only does injustice continues for the people of color but also damage is done to white people as well. Racism is seen to only impact the underprivileged and not the dominate group, but for every racist act against

Read More
593 Words | 3 Pages

Tim Wise’s lecture “Between Barack and a Hard Place” touched so many bases, all of it leading back to racist America and how racism is still present today. He starts strong by saying the guilt and responsibility are two different things, “guilty is what you feel for what you have done and responsibility is what you take for who you are. I believe that the pointing out of the two words is really important when talking about race. Some white people feel as though they should try to ignore race and try not to discriminate because they feel guilty about how “the system” is set up against us and they feel like there whiteness is to blame for that.. Other white people feel like race isn’t an issue and that we should get over the fact that slavery

Read More
916 Words | 4 Pages

Former President Barack Obama in his Inaugural Address said “Each time we gather to inaugurate a President, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution. We affirm the promise of democracy. We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin, or the tenets of our faith, or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional -- what makes us American -- is our allegiance to an idea articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago” (pg.01). Obama’s presidency was something never witnessed, not only because of him being the first Afro-American president, but a president that changed the US for good.

Read More
669 Words | 3 Pages

the fact that black males are more likely to be incarcerated we can conclude that African American families have a higher risk of being in poverty. Moreover, this leads to their children attending underfunded schools where they receive far less than an equal education. It is morally wrong that the value of you education should depend on your zip code, something you have limited to no control over. As claimed in Ta Nehisi’s “The Case for Reparations,” America will never be whole again until the wrong morals of the past and present are confronted. Indeed, a viable claim.

Read More
1280 Words | 6 Pages

As of the year 2016, there are an estimated 324,118,787 people living in America. 324,118,787 people consider themselves to be Americans and 324,118,787 people have decided that America really is worthy enough to be called home. These people, whether they were born within the country or emigrated from another country, comingle in this melting pot of a nation, sharing grocery stores and hospitals and neighborhoods and all the ideologies that make up American society, and each of these people have their own lives and opinions and personal beliefs. All of these people, all (roughly) 324,118,787 of them, fall under the definition of an American – a person who lives in America, because there is simply no other way to define what an American is when

Read More
694 Words | 3 Pages

Have you ever been affected by race in your life? Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior is an outcome of racism. Racism is a big conflict in today’s society and effect many lives. In the two stories “Champion of the Word” by Maya Angelou and “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples , race was the big social view being discussed. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life.

Read More
939 Words | 4 Pages

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ widely acclaimed nonfiction 2015 novel, Between the World and Me, is arguably one of the most quintessential reads about race issues in the United States. For decades, race has always been a tense topic and still brings about upheaval as many differing opinions about the issue of race exists in society. In recent years, new debates have been ignited with recent rises of alleged abuses from the justice system against African Americans. Partially inspired by the rise of these cases and by a meeting with former President Barack Obama in 2013, Coates attempts to tackle the issue of race issues affecting African Americans within his novel. He presents his take on race related issues regarding African Americans in a heart-wrenching

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

Racism has been debated throughout all of the years of American history and to this day is still accused of being a problem. According to Cynthia Silva Parker, she says that “racism is a system of advantages and disadvantages based on race” (Racism -- What Will It Take to End It?). In the video, she states that it is present externally and internally every day. She makes the statement that a hiring manager is more likely to interview someone whose name on a resume says “John” over someone named “Jamal” even though they have the same qualifications. But eight years ago, America elected a black President, providing the evidence that if racism was truly a problem we never would have allowed an African American to run our country over his opponent, whom was a white male with the same qualifications.

Read More
1747 Words | 7 Pages

Race has always been a problem in America and other countries. But developments such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) has helped challenge race and racial power and its representation in American society. Articles such as Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic; White Privilege, Color, and Crime: A Personal Account by Peggy McIntosh have helped CRT develop further. Along with the documentary White Like Me by filmmaker Tim Wise. These articles and film explore the race and racism in the United States, along with critical race theory.

Read More
272 Words | 2 Pages

Institutional racism is inevitable in the United States. Institutional racism is constantly occurring, whether it be in the work force, schools, or the criminal justice system. The color of one’s skin is a determining factor for his success in a company, and whether or not he ends up in the court systems, and for how long. Although laws such as the Thirteenth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, and Fifteenth Amendment have been put in place to avoid racism in America and give black people equal rights, institutional racism is still holding African Americans back.

Read More
902 Words | 4 Pages

From slavery in the 1700s to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the subject of race has been a paramount issue in American culture and politics. In the world of today, however, racism and racial bias have begun to take new forms. The violent hate crimes of the past have been replaced by racial discrimination and bias. While bias affects many aspects of one’s daily life, experiences dictated by racial bias cause much more harm than the bias of a historian in his writings or a newscaster in her reporting. Furthermore, the problem does not conclude with one specific group experiencing hate; countless other ethnicities are victim to these abhorrent experiences, specifically Arab/Muslim-Americans.

Read More
258 Words | 2 Pages

The study of racism has a profound potential to become an ambiguous sociological endeavor. Incidentally, accounting for the multitude of factors which encompass this subject appear to make it the very heart of the matter and consequently the most time consuming. Although, it is my belief that all three of the main sociological theories (Functionalism, Conflict Theory and Symbolic Interactionism) should be integrated in order to achieve a legitimate and quantifiable outcome, for obvious reasons the “Conflict Theory” logically renders the best possible method to obtain a valid micro analysis of specific agents in this case. The oxford dictionary defines racism as being: prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior; a belief that all members of each race possesses characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

Read More
1125 Words | 5 Pages

Today in class, we discussed a topic that is deeply engraved in American history yet widely avoided by many: race. More specifically, terms like “racist,” “All Lives Matter,” and “white privilege,” which may make some people uncomfortable but more than ever, need to be confronted and examined. We watched several videos containing a variety of people discussing their own personal thoughts and feelings on such terms to spark our own conversations on the same topics. After viewing the first video on the word “racist,” I began to reflect on my own actions towards other people.

Read More

More about Summary Of Between Barack And A Hard Place By Tim Wise

Open Document