In this presentation, anti-racist educator Tim Wise examines how overt racism has increasingly penetrated American political discourse and has contributed to terrorist violence, most recently in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Charlottesville, El Paso and Charleston. Having begun his career in the campaigns to defeat Neo-Nazi David Duke in his runs for political office, Wise has been a witness to a 30-year process of radicalization on the right, and can speak directly to how racist dog-whistles—long a staple in American politics—became full-fledged bullhorns.
What were once extreme views—about immigration, for instance—are now expressed nightly on Fox News and echoed by prominent right-wing leaders from Donald Trump to Congresspersons to pundits like Tucker Carlson. And as many as a third of Americans, and half of Republicans, now say they believe some politicians are deliberately trying to “replace” white Americans with immigrants of color for political gain—the very theory that animated the recent terrorist attacks.