I saw Tim Wise speak yesterday!

He was incredible! So so smart and passionate about ending racism.

he said a lot of stuff about Obama and the presidential race. One of his first points was that if O wins, we should not kid ourselves that his victory says _anything_ about the larger systemic reality of race and racism in America and that it is highly dangerous to speak of his potential victory (or even getting this far) as a signal of the end of racism in America. pretty radical, huh? I wish I was smart enough to articulate the argument for you all. I did record part of the talk so maybe I can upload it.

I remember this analogy though that laid out the argument pretty well. he said, "on the issue of sexism, if I were to say to you that the election of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan in 1988 and then again in 1993 signified the end of sexism and patriarchy in Pakistan, what would you say to me? You'd say I was crazy." He said this while giving huge props to Obama for his individual accomplishment as a person of color.

Anyway, here's a clip that I haven't watched yet from another talk:

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His speaking style is kind of like a Southern Baptist preacher whose devil is white privilege. I loved it.