You know, I see his point about how Dr. King's legacy and actions have been sanitized, but at the same time, wow are my hackles up by a white guy talking about how a black woman is getting this wrong. He's coming off really gross to me.
ITA. I still can't forget the time when he got into it with a POC commenter on his blog. IIRC, Wise was saying shit about how he was more educated than the commenter because he had done his reading and stuff. I'm sure I'm getting the details wrong since it's been a while, but it was pretty gross regardless.
He also got pissy when other POC brought up the suggestion that Wise spend more time helping to promote POC anti-racism activists instead of trying to be at the forefront himself.
What also bothers me is that writing essays in academic circles, as Wise does, is in no way a manifestation of the very "radical social transformation" Wise is urging for.
In fact, there is nothing inherently "radical" about white people calling out the privilege of other white people, as Wise does; it's even "less radical" that he does it via the filter of academia, where all forms of anti-oppression discourse provides relatively positive/safe space to begin with.
Writing essays about needing to de-sanitize MLK's legacy is just as "un-radical". Cornel West and others have been doing that for decades.
Coupled with a white man scrutinizing whether or not a WOC chooses to engage in "radical" social justice, this essay is irritating.
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He also got pissy when other POC brought up the suggestion that Wise spend more time helping to promote POC anti-racism activists instead of trying to be at the forefront himself.
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Then...Why isnt the essay about the 'rest of us', rather than Michelle Obama.
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In fact, there is nothing inherently "radical" about white people calling out the privilege of other white people, as Wise does; it's even "less radical" that he does it via the filter of academia, where all forms of anti-oppression discourse provides relatively positive/safe space to begin with.
Writing essays about needing to de-sanitize MLK's legacy is just as "un-radical". Cornel West and others have been doing that for decades.
Coupled with a white man scrutinizing whether or not a WOC chooses to engage in "radical" social justice, this essay is irritating.
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about which the president speaks little, for fear of offending white folks.
There are so many levels of not-getting-it in this piece. It's like a 7 layer dip that's been left out in the sun.
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