With a new preface
and updated chapters, White Like Me is one-part memoir,
one-part polemical essay collection. It is a personal examination of
the way in which racial privilege shapes the daily lives of white
Americans in every realm: employment, education, housing, criminal
justice, and elsewhere.
Using stories from
his own life, Tim Wise demonstrates the ways in which racism not only
burdens people of color, but also benefits, in relative terms, those
who are “white like him.” He discusses how racial privilege can
harm whites in the long run and make progressive social change less
likely. He explores the ways in which whites can challenge their
unjust privileges, and explains in clear and convincing language why
it is in the best interest of whites themselves to do so. Using
anecdotes instead of stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that
is at once readable and yet scholarly, analytical and yet accessible.