Thoughts on Tim Wise

After watching a speech given by Tim Wise on racial discrimination, I took a step back to examine myself.  Am I racist without even knowing it?  I think racial profiling is a lot more common among white people than we are willing to admit.  When you see a young black kid driving a nice car do you look assume he's a drug dealer or a professional athlete?  But when you see a white kid driving a nice car you assume his parents are rich and he's just spoiled.  Stereotyping people of another race is another form of discrimination that I think is many times looked over.  Tim Wise took a very direct approach and criticized the white community for turning our cheeks to racial discrimination.  It is still a huge problem in the United States that needs to be recognized.  At the beginning of his speech, Wise says his speech could only be given by a white person and as he continued I saw why.  Although what Wise was saying was true, the speech would have been offensive if given by a black person.  I don't think the white community is ready to hear criticism from the black community, but if the criticism is coming from one of their "own" they are more willing to listen.  Wise really drove the point home and as a white person, I found myself doing a  mental "check" on how I view people of different races.  Even people who say they aren't racist need to stop and think about how racial stereotyping is detrimental to society.  Below is a link to a clip of one of his speeches:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7677528555527674049&ei=gZ2RSdT0CpSe-wGPpM2KCQ&q=Tim+WIse