White anti-racist activist Tim Wise addressed a nearly filled John B. Davis lecture hall on Tuesday, March 9. His lecture, entitled “How Will Race Impact the 2004 Elections? The Politics of Prejudice: Racial Scapegoating in America” received a standing ovation from the audience.

Wise has been a social justice activist for the past two decades, training labor, government, corporate and law enforcement officials in methods for dealing with and dismantling racism. In a letter from a member of the Ku Klux Klan intercepted by a former Klan member, Wise was described as “[E]xtremely dangerous. A deceptively Aryan-looking little Jew.”

In his hour-and-a-half-long lecture, Wise addressed racism in contested public policy issues at the national level, including welfare, immigration and unemployment. According to Wise, immigration will be a particularly hot topic in the next election, especially in states like California that depend on a highly diverse labor force. “It’s not the U.S. subsidizing immigration, it’s immigration that is subsidizing the U.S.,” he said.

Wise began with a history of racism’s role in national politics. “Racism has been embedded in politics since [before] George Wallace. It really has been in our history since our forefathers,” he said. “U.S. foreign policy has been about keeping the dark hordes at bay.”

Wise’s lecture was heavily laden with statistical analysis of these issues, illuminating some of the racialized practices involved in their enactment and practice.

“White men who are high school dropouts have lower unemployment than black and Latino men with a college education combined,” Wise said. According to Wise, this clearly shows racism in the job market.

Wise also addressed issues of racism in the academic world, from discussing affirmative action to citing discussions he had had with Macalester students.

“I think [Wise] really got me to change the way I think about politics,” Charles Campbell ’06 said. “I never realized how racialized politics really is. It adds a lot more weight to the argument [for] greater diversity on campus, both racially and socioeconomically, as the two are linked together.”

Wise also addressed the issue of a nationwide decrease in need-blind admissions programs and the potential for such a situation at Macalester. According to Wise, the competition among private liberal arts schools, paired with the struggling economy, could have a huge effect on diversity. By focusing on rankings like the U.S. News and World Report, which focus on issues unrelated to diversity, Macalester could implement policies that would not encourage minorities to attend.

“We can take advantage of this in regards to the admissions issues at Macalester right now,” Michael Eastwood ’04 said. “For instance, should Macalester hold itself up to the standards of [U.S. News ratings]? I personally don’t think so, and Wise laid that out well.”

“Some white folks assume that race is only an issue when people of color make it one,” Wise said. “It isn’t a problem until they bring it up. [That’s] faulty.”

“It’s important to be aware of the ways in which we internalize racism,” Campbell said.

When asked by an audience member about the role of white students in working as race allies, Wise responded, “The best thing you can do is learning to hear the truth from people of color and believe it.”

Wise serves as Senior Advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute in Nashville. He also has done extensive work with and served as the Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, the group credited by many with the political defeat of neo-Nazi David Duke.