Tim Wise

“Being asked to describe what 'post-racial' means is a bit like being asked to describe a leprechaun, cold fusion or unicorns: we know what is meant, but, if we are willing to be honest, we also know that none of the four describe something real, something tangible, something true.”

“And let's just be honest, there is no such place called 'justice,' if by that we envision a finish line, or a point at which the battle is won and the need to continue the struggle over with. After all, even when you succeed in obtaining a measure of justice, you're always forced to mobilize to defend that which you've won. There is no looming vacation. But there is redemption in struggle.”

“If you want to know if racism is a problem in your country, you might not want to ask white people.”

“In short, and let us be clear on it: race is not a card. It determines whom the dealer is, and who gets dealt.”

“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.”

“Sadly, whites are rarely open to what black and brown folks have to say regarding their ongoing experiences with racist mistreatment. And we are especially reluctant to discuss what that mistreatment means for us as whites: namely that we end up with more and better opportunities as the flipside of discrimination.”

“Old white people have pretty much always been the bad guys, the keepers of the hegemonic and reactionary flame, the folks unwilling to share the category of American with others on equal terms.”

“Precisely because white denial has long trumped claims of racism, people of color tend to underreport their experiences with racial bias rather than exaggerate them.”

“It's hard to say when or if we will actually arrive at that place called 'post-racial', or, better yet, post-racism.”

“Too often, systems of oppression turn those who are the targets of the oppression against one another.”

“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.”

“Genealogy itself is something of a privilege, coming far more easily to those of us for whom enslavement, conquest, and dispossession of our land has not been our lot.”

“Sadly, if President Obama is willing to ignore the pain of race-based discrimination and injustice so as to make whites comfortable - and this, after he has already been elected and the campaign is long over - then the likelihood he will ever speak the truth about these matters, let alone address them, shrinks to nearly zero.”

“Only blacks can play the race card, apparently; only they think in racial terms, at least to hear white America tell it.”

“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.”

“Standing still is never an option so long as inequities remain embedded in the very fabric of the culture.”

“Progress is always relative: to the oppressed, it can only be viewed as an all or nothing deal - if oppression continues, even in a modified form, then the system must still be attacked until that injustice is eradicated.”

“As a writer, there are times when you have something to say, and yet no particular 'hook' upon which to hang the missive you are burning to release.”

“To believe that the United States is post-racial requires an almost incomprehensible inability or unwillingness to stare truth in the face.”

“Violating the 4th Amendment guarantees against illegal searches and seizures is not the way to solve crime problems.”