Anti-racism activist, writer to lecture April 19

MOUNT VERNON – Tim Wise, one of the most prominent anti-racism writers and activists in the country, will deliver the lecture “Between Barack and a Hard Place: Challenging Racism, Privilege and Denial in the Age of Obama” on Monday, April 19, at 7 p.m. in King Chapel.  The event is free and open to the public. After the talk, Wise will hold a book signing in the Russell D. Cole Library.

Wise has provided anti-racism training and lectures on over 400 college campuses, and has trained physicians, corporations, and law enforcement officials on how to combat racism in their organization. He’s the author of a number of books on race, including his latest, Between Barack and a Hard Place: Race and Whiteness in the Age of Obama.

Wise is the 2008 Oliver L. Brown Distinguished Visiting Scholar for Diversity Issues at Washburn University, in Topeka, Kan., and was a visiting faculty-in-residence at the Poynter Institute.

Wise has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tulane University, where his anti-apartheid work received global attention and the thanks of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He received training in methods for dismantling racism from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, in New Orleans.