White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise

Book Review
by Alina Mattison

Tim Wise wrote the book White like Me based on the book Black Like Me.  Black like Me is about a man who takes medicine to make his skin darker to look like a black person where as the book White like me is about a white man who is adamant about defying racism. Both of the books are discussing the issue of racism. The book white like me is very interesting because it is about a white person sticking up against racism. Usually the people who are adamant to talk about how racism is really bad are black people or people who are not white.

The point of this book is to tell people about how big of an issue racism is in America. Wise talks about why he decided to be a civil rights activist. In his book there is not particularly one main point. He never states what the main point of his book is. This book is more about the reflections of his life and why he is and believes the things he does. Even though there is not a “main point” so to say, Wise make the reader think about why it is important to be anti-racist. I thought it was a different way of writing because usually the author has one main point to their book. Wise had a different way of writing which did not include one main point to the story.

It is really interesting how Wise organizes his book. The beginning of the book discuses his life. He talks about his family and what is going on when he was growing up. The first part of the book is more of a biography of his life. The second have of the book is a compilation of his life stories. He tells stories about when he is young and stories which are more recent in his life. I thought this was a really good idea to do for the book. Telling stories about his life where Wise has come across racism made the reader feel more up close and personal with what was going on. It made you realize why racism is so bad and why people should fight against it. He was able to organize his thoughts and show the reader first hand why he is a civil rights activist. He discuses how whites should not be automatically privileged right from the start.

Wise talks about his family and how they had an impact on him. Many of the story he discuses in his book deals with his family and what they thought about racism. In particular he talks about his mom. He basically says he is the way he is today because of his mom and her attitude towards racism. Wise says it is inevitable for people to not be one-hundred percent anti-racist. He has a great story which illustrates his idea. He said when his mom was getting older, she started to get dementia. She had to be taken to a nursing home and be taken care of because she was no longer capable of taking care of herself. Even though his mom was strongly against racism her whole life, the racist side of her came out when she was in the nursing home. Wise said she started calling her nurses, which were black, racists name and being quite derogatory of towards them. This was a sad story in his book but it proved a point the was getting at. He goes back to how people can never be completely anti-racist and this story backs up his idea completely. There were other stories in the book about his family and how they impacted his life. Every story he discusses in the book were helpful in further exposing why he wrote the book. He was able to inform the reader why it is so important for people to fight against racism through his stories.

I did not choose to read this book, it was a book I was assigned. For this section I think I would have wanted to read this book over the other available books though. It sounded like an interesting book and I was wondering what is was about because it seemed like it would discuss interesting subjects. I was not sure what the book was about because the cover makes it sound like Wise was a privileged or wealthy kids growing up. It sounded like it would be an interesting book to read and I am glad I was able to read this book out of this section of the books available.

I thought Wise carried out his idea and task very well. He gave enough back ground information about himself and then supported it with stories explaining why he felt the way he did. He made it clear to the reader why he felt so adamant about the civil rights movement. He provided stories and thoughts which made the readers realize what is so wrong with racism. I thought he did a really good job carrying out his task. even though there was not a main point to the book, he showed why it is important for people to try and not be racist and participate against racism.

I thought this book was OK. It had a bunch of interesting information, but at times it seems a little bit redundant. I think he should have had more of a main point to his story. The book was more of a biography about his life and why he is the way he is today then a story. It was entertaining to read but at times it was repetitive. It is not a book I would re-read but I thought its was thoughtful information to read.