White like me

The description of Tim Wise's book, White Like Me states how while racism hurts people of color, it helps people who are “white like him” even if they are not racist. I was given the chapter of denial to read and based on this chapter I agree with Wise’s statements. Wise talks about how, white people deny racism and how dangerous that can be. Wise states “White denial has taken on new and more aggressive forms, as with the ubiquitous claims that it is we and not black and brown folks who are really being victimized. In other words, not only is white privilege a myth, but reverse racism or reverse discrimination, is the real problem.” Wise is showing how whites believe that there is nothing wrong with how the black community is being treated and how it is the whites that are being discriminated. They are oblivious to the fact that the black community are being discriminated against just because of the color of their skin while they are gaining the benefits. When people think about racism, they think about how African Americans and whites have an equal opportunity to be successful and they think about people like Opera Winfrey. However, why should an entire race be determined off of the few that became very successful? When replying to a critic about how there have been people who were able to succeed, Wise replied with “But so what? Did that mean that folks shouldn’t have been fighting for an end to racism, simply because a few individuals had been able to “make it?” In other words, what do individual success stories have to do with larger social realities?” I agree with this statement because although there have been many people of color who have “made it” there is an even greater number that aren’t able to succeed because they are constantly being looked over due to their race.