Wise, the director of the Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE) in Nashville, Tenn., began his speech by paying tribute to the "indigenous people who had to suffer a particularly unceremonious death [at the hands of Lord Jeffrey Amherst]."
Wise then explained his lecture's title. "Whenever someone with … my particular melanin deficiency [makes a racist remark], they use that line: 'But some of my best friends are black,' or 'I once dated an Asian girl,'" Wise said. "'I'm not a racist; don't you know, some of my best friends are black.'"
Wise said that in a 1997 Washington Post poll, 75 percent of white Americans claimed to have "many" black friends. In 1997, there were 142 million white people in the United States compared to only 35 million black people. "Either white people were delusional about how many black friends they had, or black people were awfully busy running around ... being friends with white people," Wise said.
Wise believes the majority of white people who made the claim believed it. "It shows ... progress-the need to make it seem that one is 'racially liberal,'" he said. Wise pointed out that our society is so misguided that water-cooler acquaintances can pass for friends.
Wise also said that the claim that one is friends with minorities is sometimes deceptive. "[Sometimes those who make this claim] want to feel better about their actual racial views," he said.
In fact, Wise said, white people often fail to acknowledge racism in their communities. Wise cited a recent poll that said 70 percent of white Americans say people of color have "fully equal" opportunity in their community.
Wise then asked if anyone in the audience thought black people had equal opportunity in 1962. When no one raised a hand, Wise said in 1962, between 70 and 80 percent of white Americans said opportunity was equal for black people in their community.
"Of course, if you ask [white people] in the 1960s they'll say, 'Oh, the 1930s, now those were rough,'" Wise said. "At what point between 1962 and today did white people go from being wrong to being incredibly perceptive about other people's realities?"
Six percent of white Americans today said they thought racial discrimination was a big problem, compared to 12 percent who thought Elvis was alive, according to Wise.
Wise shared examples of racism's current prevalence. He said that black and Latino students in the U.S. are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled from school despite no difference in rule violation. Black men are twice as likely to be searched for drugs, but white men are twice as likely to have drugs on them when they are searched.
Wise described a study performed by the University of Chicago and M.I.T. in which 5,000 resumes listing identical credentials were submitted to metropolitan offices. Half had stereotypically white names, while the other half had stereotypically black names. The applicants with white-sounding names were 50 percent more likely to be called in for an interview.
Wise attributed this kind of discrimination to the benefits the dominant group receives from institutionalized racism. The typical white family has 11 times more money than the typical black family and eight times more money than the typical Latino family.
According to Wise, people of color also bear a psychological burden. "They ... have the ... burden that we don't have, that they have to think about race on a regular basis," Wise said. "[It's] very rare for white people to be in a situation where they're the minority."
According to Wise, it is those negative effects of racism which are responsible for the underperformance of minorities on standardized tests like the SAT. Black students from affluent families score lower on the SATs than white students from poor families. "People will often underperform relative to their ability simply because of the existence of racism," Wise said.
But tests like the SAT are major factors in a school's U.S. News and World Report ranking and their admissions decisions. Wise highlighted the necessity of re-evaluating what goes on at an institutional level in order to account for the racial disadvantage of the SAT.
Pem Brown '06, communications director for ACDC, was pleased with Wise's lecture. "Amherst students are in need of a better understanding of white privilege, and Mr. Wise was able to help do that," said Brown.
Sarah Bass '06 was impressed by Wise's willingness to take risks. "I thought it was really neat to see his honesty up there. The message applies to all races," she said. "As a white man, he took a real risk to go up there and tell the truth. It's a first step to racial reconciliation in this country."