Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. On Thursday, April 27, 2023, Wise will be on Rock Valley College’s Main Campus to speak on “The Attack on Critical Race Theory: What’s It Really About?”  

The event marks the 11^th Annual David H. Caskey Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the family of Professor Caskey, the Rock Valley College Foundation, and the RVC Philosophy Department. The event is free and open to the public.

Date/Time: Thursday, April 27, 2023, at 6 p.m.

Location: Rock Valley College Physical Education Center (PEC) located at 3301 N. Mulford Road in Rockford, IL

 

THE LECTURE: The Attack on Critical Race Theory — What’s It Really About?
In his presentation, Wise will examine the recent attacks on anti-racist education and their motivations.

According to Wise, “Those leading the attack claim they are simply pushing back against “Critical Race Theory” — which they claim is anti-white and suggests America is an evil nation — CRT teaches no such things and isn’t actually being taught in K-12 schools to begin with.”  

When the books and lessons are examined that the opposition seeks to ban — including children’s books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks — Wise says it becomes clear: this isn’t about stopping “radical” ideas from being taught; it’s about whitewashing history. Wise will demonstrate that this assault on truth is about three things: seeking to stem support for the movement for racial justice and Black lives, seeking to blame the victims of racial injustice for their position in American society, and undermining support for public education itself.

 

ABOUT TIM WISE

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. He has spent the past 25 years speaking to audiences in all 50 states, on over 1500 college and high school campuses, at hundreds of professional and academic conferences, and to community groups across the country.

Wise has also trained corporate, government, entertainment, media, law enforcement, military, and medical industry professionals on methods for dismantling racial inequity in their institutions and has provided anti-racism training to educators and administrators nationwide and internationally in Canada and Bermuda.

Wise is the author of nine books, including his latest, Dispatches from the Race War (City Lights Books). Other books include Under the Affluence, Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority and Colorblind (all from City Lights Books); his highly-acclaimed memoir, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, (recently updated and re-released by Soft Skull Press); Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White; Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male; and Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.

Named one of “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World” by Utne Reader, Wise has contributed chapters or essays to over 25 additional books, and his writings are taught in colleges and universities nationwide. His essays have appeared on Alternet, Salon, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, The Root, Black Commentator, BK Nation, and Z Magazine, among other popular, professional, and scholarly journals.

From 1999-2003, Wise was an advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute in Nashville, and in the early ’90s, he was Youth Coordinator and Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism: the largest of the many groups organized for the purpose of defeating neo-Nazi political candidate, David Duke.

Wise has been featured in several documentaries, including two from the Media Education Foundation. “White Like Me: Race, Racism and White Privilege in America,” which he co-wrote and co-produced, has been called “A phenomenal educational tool in the struggle against racism” and “One of the best films made on the unfinished quest for racial justice,” by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva of Duke University, and Robert Jensen of the University of Texas, respectively. "The Great White Hoax: Donald Trump & the Politics of Race & Class in America" features Wise explores how American political leaders of both parties have been tapping into white anxiety, stoking white grievance, and scapegoating people of color for decades to divide and conquer working class voters and shore up political support.

Wise also appears alongside legendary scholar and activist Angela Davis in the 2011 documentary, “Vocabulary of Change.” In this public dialogue between the two activists, Davis and Wise discussed the connections between issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and militarism, as well as inter-generational movement building and the prospects for social change. More recently, he appeared in Chelsea Handler's Netflix documentary Hello Privilege, It’s Me Chelsea on white privilege and racism in the United States.

Wise appears regularly on CNN and MSNBC to discuss race issues and was featured in a 2007 segment on 20/20. He graduated from Tulane University in 1990 and received antiracism training from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond in New Orleans. He is also the host of the podcast, Speak Out with Tim Wise.

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