In short, and let us be clear on it: race is not a card. It determines whom the dealer is, and who gets dealt.
Tim WiseRead
For people of color - especially African Americans - the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion, let alone an exercise in irrational conspiracy theorizing. Rather, it speaks to a social reality about which blacks are acutely aware.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the real concerns African Americans have regarding systemic racism and wrongful accusations by law enforcement.
Tim Wise emphasizes that for many people of color, particularly African Americans, the fear of being wrongfully framed by police reflects a painful and vivid reality rather than mere paranoia. This sentiment is rooted in historical injustices and ongoing racial discrimination, making the perception of such events a poignant and legitimate concern within the community.
Themes
RacismPoliceAfrican AmericanSocial JusticeCommunityAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In discussions about police reform and racial injustice, this quote can be used to highlight the community's fear and experiences.
More from Tim Wise
All quotes →There are lots of research, of course, saying that a vast majority of us have been exposed to racial biases and stereotypes and, to some extent, we've internalized them, because that's so ubiquitous. That's why I'm so bored with the conversation about who's a racist and who's not.
Tim WiseRead
You can't organize people if you don't love them. And however hard it can be to love the racist you come in contact with; doing so is the first obligation of a white antiracist.
Tim WiseRead
The power of resistance is to set an example: not necessarily to change the person with whom you disagree, but to empower the one who is watching and whose growth is not yet completed, whose path is not at all clear, whose direction is still very much up in the proverbial air.
Tim WiseRead
People of color have to do this work as a mater of everyday survival. And so long as they have to, who am I to act as if I have a choice in the matter? Especially when my future and that of my children in large part depends on the eradication of racism? There is no choice.
Tim WiseRead
Our failure as a society to properly acknowledge and confront the psychological, social, and political effects of white privilege has perpetuated racial inequality and race-based political resentments.
Tim WiseRead
Similar quotes
The obscenities of this country are not girls like you. It is the poverty which is obscene, and the criminal irresponsibility of the leaders who make this poverty a deadening reality. The obscenities in this country are the places of the rich, the new hotels made at the expense of the people, the hospitals where the poor die when they get sick because they don't have the money either for medicines or services. It is only in this light that the real definition of obscenity should be made.
F. Sionil JosRead
Far less wealthy industrialized countries have committed to end child poverty, while the United States is sliding backwards. We can do better. We must demand that our leaders do better.
Marian Wright EdelmanRead
The gifts of God should be enjoyed by all citizens in Mississippi.
Medgar EversRead
The recognized achievements of some Negroes, despite rigid racial barriers, indicate that society by its prejudices may be depriving itself of valuable contributions from many others. It is now doubtful whether America can afford the luxury of such a waste of human resources.
Kenneth ClarkRead
No nation as rich as ours should have so many people isolated on islands of poverty in such a sea of material wealth.
Andrew YoungRead
As long as white people put people of color, African Americans and Latinos, in the same dispensable bag, and look at our children of color as insignificant and treat women of color as not as deserving of protection as white women, we will never achieve true equality.
Claudette ColvinRead