Contact: Brad Duncan

Since 1990, he has spoken in 46 states to hundreds of community groups and on over 300 college campuses. His topics have included “The Politics of Prejudice: Racial Scapegoating in America” and “Blinded by the White: How Media Paints Crime Black and Blacks Criminal.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 31, 2003) -- Noted white anti-racism proponent Timothy Jacob Wise will be at the University of Kentucky to give a lecture, titled “Beyond Diversity: Challenging Racism in an Age of Backlash,” at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10, in Memorial Hall.

Wise seeks to increase the awareness of all forms of racism that are still present in this country.

Since 1990, he has spoken in 46 states to hundreds of community groups and on over 300 college campuses. His topics have included “The Politics of Prejudice: Racial Scapegoating in America” and “Blinded by the White: How Media Paints Crime Black and Blacks Criminal.”

“The list of sponsors for this event reads like a Who’s Who of multicultural endeavors at UK and in the Lexington community,” said Dinah Anderson, coordinator of the Public Child Welfare Certification Program in the UK College of Social Work. “That alone stands as a solid endorsement of this speaker and his message. I have heard him speak and can guarantee that Tim Wise has the ability to take us all farther than we have been before to make UK and the Lexington community truly inclusive.”

Wise earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Tulane University where his anti-apartheid work received attention from Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In 2001, he won the British Diversity Award for best feature essay on race issues.
After speaking at UK, Wise will speak on “The Truth About Affirmative Action and ‘Reverse Discrimination’” at Lexington Community College from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11. He will then lead discussion of the film, “The House We Live In,” the third installment of the “RACE - The Power of an Illusion” film series and a film on which he was a consultant to the producers. It will be shown at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 at Transylvania University’s Carrick Theater.

Sponsors for the events include the UK Office for Multicultural and Academic Affairs, UK Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Center, the UK College of Social Work, UK Chapter of the NAACP, the Mu Theta Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, UK Student Government, the UK President’s Commission on Diversity, Transylvania University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Lilly Project, Lexington Community College, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the Lexington Network, Lexington Living Wage Campaign, National Conference for Communities and Justice, Interfaith Alliance of the Bluegrass, Republican Meeting House of the Unitarian/Universalist Church, Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice, Community Action Council, and the Kentucky Association of Colored Women’s Clubs.