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Also by Tim Wise:

Between Barack and a Hard Place, January 2009
Paperback
Speaking Treason Fluently, September 2008
Paperback
White Like Me: Reflections On Race From A Privileged Son, January 2008
Paperback

Between Barack and a Hard Place
Tim Wise

Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama

City Lights Books
January 2009
On Sale: January 1, 2009
120 pages
ISBN: 0872865002
EAN: 9780872865006
Paperback
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Non-Fiction

Race is, and always has been, an explosive issue in the United States. In this timely new book, Tim Wise explores how Barack Obama’s emergence as a political force is taking the race debate to new levels. According to Wise, for many white people, Obama’s rise signifies the end of racism as a pervasive social force; they point to Obama not only as a validation of the American ideology that anyone can make it if they work hard, but also as an example of how institutional barriers against people of color have all but vanished. But is this true? And does a reinforced white belief in color-blind meritocracy potentially make it harder to address ongoing institutional racism? After all, in housing, employment, the justice system, and education, the evidence is clear: white privilege and discrimination against people of color are still operative and actively thwarting opportunities, despite the success of individuals like Obama.

Is black success making it harder for whites to see the problem of racism, thereby further straining race relations, or will it challenge anti-black stereotypes to such an extent that racism will diminish and race relations improve? Will blacks in power continue to be seen as an “exception” in white eyes? Is Obama “acceptable” because he seems “different from most blacks,” who are still viewed too often as the dangerous and inferior “other”?

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