Racism Exposed In The Film By Tim Wise

In this documentary based on his book, Tim Wise tries to demonstrate that racism is still prevalent in America today, and is largely perpetuated by the traditional institutions and social indoctrinations of white privilege. The film begins with a historical background on laws and systems, as far back as the 18th century, that were inherently racist and designed only for whites. Wise also included photos and statistics to show how aid systems, like social security and the GI bill, were originally for white people. Later in the film, Wise connects these racial foundations to our current issues of discrimination that include our largely black occupied prison system, public schools, and welfare. He then brings up a step in the positive direction

by highlighting Obama’s presidency. However, this is then grounded with his statements that, regardless of our country electing a black president, statistics show that the other 45 million blacks are continually not hired, not approved for housing, and don’t have the same means to rise out of poverty. Also Wise does bring up the argument that many Caucasians contend: reverse racism. Wise uses this argument to disprove the notion that blacks are actually given more opportunities because of their ethnicity via equal opportunity / affirmative action. Finally, he presses that we should not be color blind, but instead become color aware so that future instances of racism do not go unnoticed.
Overall, I felt like Wise did a good job at connecting statistics and historical information to current residual racism in America. His weakest argument, I believe, was his statistic that only one African American student benefits from affirmative action per two white students. He says that the two students got preference because their parents were alumni and that they happened to be white. To me, saying that the schools gave preference to them because their parents were alumni or affiliated with the school has nothing to do with their race if they just happened to be white. Finally, I think Wise’s argument was compelling because he used much more information than anecdotal evidence, and conveyed his point in a non-biased, sensitive manner.