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Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama

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Mr. Wise's several internet essays after the great triumph of hope (Obama's election) last November left me a little worried about him. He seemed a little too caught up in the irrational exuberance of the period as he denounced left wing gadflies who were, in his opinion, spoiling the joy of the moment by continuing to denounce Obama as a pro-corporate militarist front. But in spite of the understandable celebration of having the first black president, there is the inescapable fact that Obama's policies, stripped of the veneer of pretty rhetoric, are hardly different than his Democratic presidential predecessors. In his short time in office, while doing a few small good things, he has already shown his commitment to the fundamentals of the military industrial complex and the re-empowerment of Wall Street speculators. I'm glad that Mr. Wise, as this book demonstrates, has managed to retain a level head regarding Obama, in spite of those post-election essays.

Quoting sources like academic studies and Department of Justice reports, Wise shows that racism is still a serious problem in this society. Black and brown people are 25 percent of the drug users in this country but make up 90 percent of those in prison for drug possession. White people are 70 percent of the drug users yet are only ten percent of the persons in prison for such a crime. A 2001 report from the Department of Justice found that black women were 9 times more likely than white women to be stopped at airports and searched for contraband but white women were 2 times more likely than black women to actually have drugs on them. More blacks than whites are pulled over by police on suspicion of having contraband but white people are actually more likely to have contraband in these incidents. Studies show that at least a third of businesses have discriminated in hiring based on race. A National Opinion research survey in the early 90's found that 50 to 60 percent of whites were willing to admit to holding the view that blacks are generally lazier, more prone to violence, etc. than whites. In a September 2008 AP poll, 60 percent of likely Democratic voters admitted to having negative views about blacks in general but still planned to vote for Obama. A big stereotype that polling among whites has revealed is that whites associate blacks with welfare dependency, even though, as Wise notes, 5 of 6 blacks have never received welfare. Wise notes that a Wall Street Journal article in 1995 showed that around 70 percent of whites with bad credit could still get a mortgage but only 16 percent of blacks with bad credit could do so. As for Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, Wise notes how federal government policies have caused a veritable ethnic cleansing of blacks from New Orleans. Wise also recounts the horrendous incidents in the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans during Katrina.

Wise is very worried that while Obama's election signifies some good things, it also could serve to make fighting racism even harder. Obama's election could serve to reinforce white racism. White people already have pointed to Obama's election as proof that if black folks would just work hard and stop complaining, they can rise to the pinnacle of this society just like Oprah, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, etc. One of my favorite statements that Wise makes in this book (as in his previous book) relates to the argument that Obama's election proves racism is not a serious problem in this country. To make such a claim, according to Wise, is like arguing that because Benazir Bhutto was one of the leading political figures in Pakistan, that proves that sexism and violence against women is not a serious problem in that country.

I'm particularly glad that Wise puts something in this book about the right wing talking point that the current financial crises has been caused by the Community Redevelopment Act(CRA) forcing banks to lend money to financially troubled people of color. In reality, a large majority of sub-prime loans were made by the big mortgage houses, which were not covered by the CRA. Loans made under the CRA actually have a significantly less default rate than regular loans. Wise notes that studies have shown that black people have not uncommonly been directed into sub-prime mortgages even when they qualify for a prime loan. Greedy bankers brought down this financial system by deliberately starting speculative bubbles not because ACORN and the federal government terrorized them into making bad loans. As for ACORN, Wise dispels the notion that they encouraged reckless lending. In his endnotes, Wise also notes the fake scare about ACORN trying to engage in voting fraud.

Wise does not believe that, in many ways, Obama's victory represents a very significant step in the battle against racism. Obama, after all, rarely addressed the issue of white supremacy and so he made white folks feel comfortable just as Bill Cosby's sitcom made white folks comfortable. Obama has wholeheartedly embraced the pre-dominant white narrative about the heroic and more or less virtuous character of American history.

Wise argues that to make significant progress between the races, white people are going to have to no longer dismiss black people who tell stories of the way racism has affected their life. They must understand why a lot of black people were not disturbed by Jeremiah Wright's false claim that white people created the AIDS virus to use against black people. After all, it has been well documented over the years where black people have been used in medical experiments against their will, for example injected with plutonium and cancer cells. Our own CIA, as the Senate Church Committee revealed in the 1970's, conduced "medical experiments" under the MK Ultra program, including, in the early 50's, releasing yellow fever and whooping cough mosquitoes in black populated areas of Miami and Savannah, Georgia.

I am thoroughly convinced that we have reached a point in American history where racism can only be addressed and, eventually, abolished though the conscious action of White America. Just as women who speak against sexism are labeled weak and accused of whining; blacks who speak against racism are destined to be accused of 'playing the race card'.

Tim Wise constructs two pithy arguments pertaining the "Call for White Responsibility". First, Wise discusses the denial of racism in the current age. Second, Wise discusses the need for white Americans to confront, attack and reverse the impact of white privilege.

People of all races must be wary of the concept of "transcending Blackness". This is the tendency to accept a select segment of the Black population because the defy the current stigmatism of negative stereotypes. Wise examines this phenomenon in detail.

Second, people of all races must admit that the vast majority of white Americans currently living are not to blame for current systems of racism which are in place. However, Wise is calling for Caucasians to acknowledge any benefits that they may receive from the inherited system and work towards truly equalizing the American experience through the abolition of racism.

If I could suggest that every American read a selection of Tim Wise before they attend an American University, I would. Perhaps the world would be a different place.

As a student of African American History, I have always been puzzled by how white Americans can easily go about their lives, seemingly oblivious to the lives of others, particularly African Americans. While in college in the 1970s, I had the rude awakening regarding White Christianity and its support of slavery. Despite the teachings of Jesus and the need to lead society, the majority white church suborned herself to the culture of the day and sided against their black brethren. It became abundantly clear to me that if the majority of white people in America had taken the stance of the Quakers and others, along with the abolitionists, slavery would have ended much sooner. The sad part about race in America is that most people are in denial about the continuing ill effects of racism on our country. In his book, Tim Wise makes a most cogent argument regarding the devasting impact of racism on everyday life of people of color, and the apparent disregard or denial by whites of such impact. This book is a very powerful statement of the impact that race plays in the national life of our country. It has the potenital of bringing about change, if white people will remove their rose colored glasses and see what is apparent to numerous others. I commend Mr. Wise for having the courage to confront his fellow citizens for their indifference. I am recommending it to all of my friends in celebration of African American History MonthBetween Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama

Between Barack and a Hard Place is an accurate, timely, much-needed scathing analysis of the current state of racism in the United States. As many Americans are being lulled into believing that racism has been eradicated by the election of the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.

Through use of many contemporary and historical examples, Wise illustrates how the dominant narrative of racial equality being achieved with this election is being crafted and perpetuated, and what it might mean for racism in our society.

Anyone who believes in fighting for social justice and equality needs to read this book. It's a pointed read at only 150 pages, but it's incredibly thorough and concise.

Tim Wise provides a searing update on the new racism that has entered the sociopolitical mindscape in the United States. He provides thought-provoking facts, both current and historical, that demonstrate a behind-the-scenes unconscious agenda played out in society because of unacknowledged white privilege. Not even Obama escapes the pressures of the new racism. I am sending copies to my family members and friends.

An excellent read about racism which still exists in the US today. Tim Wise has throughly researched this topic and has presented it in a way that most everyone can undersatnd the topic and its ramifications to society. We are living it through all people the President of the United States, Barrack Obama.

Tim Wise, along with Robert Jensen (at the University of Texas, Austin) is among only a handful of vocal, activist, white, anti-racists still remaining in America. In this irreverent book that appears to have gone to press just shortly after Obama's election, Wise proves that he is not afraid to call a "spade a spade" even in race-sensitive America, and even when the subject is "our first Black President."

Although his main point in this penetrating series of "essay like commentaries" seem to have been that of raising the level of consciousness about the subtle differences between white denial in Racism 1.0 and the newer even more pernicious denial in Racism version 2.0, Wise does one other thing that I think is even more important than the message about the continuing evolution of white denial. He also goes about removing all pretense (and the remaining clothes) from our race-allergic" biracial Emperor, on the issue of race.

By taking no quarter with Obama's clearly established "race-cowardice" stance, in the face of the most devastating social and political meltdown in the black community ever, Wise establishes himself as the voice to be heard in America's conversation on race. One that is increasingly being commandeered and dominated by the likes of Sarah Palin's "Tea Party," and the shock Jocks from the racist radical right like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. As always, Wise has learned that when talking about race, one must come armed with all the facts, and here he is a virtual encyclopedia of facts about the alarming increase in the chasm in the racial divide -- mostly as a result of Racism 2.0.

But on the other topic of this book, Obama's skittishness on race, I agree with the author entirely: that Obama's disgraceful "pandering" to the white supremacist vote, harks back to the old days of the Jim Crow South, where right up through the election night parties, blacks were "wined and dined," but on the morning after the election, they were the only ones "missing in action" when it came to handing out the political goodies. And oddly, with the Shirley Sherrod flap, and Obama's gratuitous announcement that "there is no black agenda," this pattern has gotten worse rather than better since this book went to press.

To their credit, the "Tea Party," the shock jocks from the right, and Fox News pundits, all smell blood in Obama's skittishness on the issue of race. As a result, they are able to fashion, based on this vulnerability, a "pure strategy" for ruining Obama's chances of a continued veto-proof Congress, and ultimately for derailing any attempt by him of trying to win a second term. Sadly, as Wise so carefully points out, Obama and his Chicago handlers are falling for this racist "okie-doke," and right into the radical right's trap: When the idiots of the far right say "boo," like a cage of monkeys in the zoo, the Obama administration, first pees, and then jumps all over themselves. Thus as anyone can plainly see (from the Shirley Sherrod "attack and then retreat;" the withdrawal of his own hand-picked appointee for the EPA, the inept "Beer Summit," Robert Gibbs' mindless declaration about the "professional left," and declaring that "there is no black agenda") there is clearly an established pattern by the Obama administration of showing Blacks and other progressives (the ones who went to the well for him to get him elected) a kind of gratuitous disrespect for their concerns.

This pattern of "flipping the bird at those who elected him," is one that we have not seen since the "unctuous politicians" of the racist Jim Crow South: By "pandering," "tacking," and "triangulating" to the white supremacist vote, Obama and his handlers may think they are being politically clever, but as this book demonstrates, doing so has the very high costs of making our new biracial President seem just plain weak and timid, and weak and timid, for anyone who remembers Jimmy Carter, just happen to be the very two qualities from which a politician never recovers. A solid Five Stars.

this book details some of the problems existing in the relations of whites and blacks in America. Much as individuals may wish to think or accept that there has been improvement in these relations, the text pinpoints the problems still present. it is a worthwhile read and an eye opener....

Shipment was fast. The book came in really good condition. Hope to use this seller in the future.

This book is a gripping "must read" for understanding the truth about racism in America. Tim Wise clearly and accurately articulates why America is not post-racial, despite the election of the first black President in U.S. history.

He offers an excellent perspective on the 2008 presidential election campaign, the Rev. Wright controversy, New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and much more on America's long and sordid history of racial oppression and injustice. Wise connects us with the real world experiences of African Americans, while integrating indisputable facts and data, including the overwhelming evidence of existing racial disparities in education, employment, housing, health care, wealth, and the criminal justice system.

Wise's paradigm of Racism 1.0 and the modern version - Racism 2.0 - is brilliant. The author finishes with a strong call for white responsibility to oppose and eradicate racism, in partnership with people of color.

Michael Rabbitt
Chicago, IL