Prominent race-relations writer and educator Tim Wise will give a public lecture at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) on Thursday, March 28, 2013. The free event begins at 6 p.m. at the Hill University Center Great Hall located at 1400 University Blvd.
The lecture is part of UAB’s partnership with the City of Birmingham in 50 Years Forward, the ongoing 50th anniversary commemoration of the seminal events of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
Wise has provided anti-racism training to teachers, physicians and medical industry professionals, as well as corporate, government, entertainment, military and law enforcement officials. He was named one of “25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World” by Utne Reader in 2010 and has visited more than 800 colleges and high schools across the nation to speak.
Wise has written a number of essays and books examining, from the perspective of a white man, the issue of race in America. He has penned six widely read books: “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son,” “Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White,” “Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male,” “Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism,” “White Denial in the Age of Obama, and Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity” and his latest, “Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority.”
Wise, a graduate of Tulane University, co-taught a course on U.S. racism at the Smith College School for Social Work. He also trained journalists to eliminate racial bias in reporting as a visiting faculty-in-residence at the Poynter Institute.
Wise has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV programs and is a regular contributor on CNN. He has been featured in several documentary films, including “Vocabulary of Change,” “Race 2012” and “Who is Black in America?” The feature-length documentary “White Like Me,” which explores Wise’s life, will be released in April.
The lecture is sponsored by Multicultural and Diversity Programs within the Office of Student Life, Department of Social Work, Office of Multicultural Affairs at UAB School of Medicine and the African American Studies Program.