Anti-Racism Activist to Speak at Caltech

PASADENA, Calif.— Tim Wise, a social activist and director of the Association for White Anti-Racist Education in Nashville, Tennessee, will be the second speaker in the 2001–2002 Social Activism Speaker Series at the California Institute of Technology. The presentation, "Racism, Terrorism, and Global White Supremacy after 9/11," will take place on Wednesday, February 20, at 8 p.m. in Baxter Lecture Hall on the Caltech campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Wise has been an activist since the age of 14. While a student at Tulane University, he received the personal thanks of Nelson Mandela and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu for his efforts in the anti-apartheid movement. Later, in the early 1990s, he was the associate director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism, the group often credited with the political defeat of David Duke.

Wise has trained corporate, labor, and government officials on how to eliminate institutional racism in their organizations. He has also spoken to hundreds of community groups and at over 200 college campuses.

He is a contributor to the recently published anthology, White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism, and is also contributing to two upcoming anthologies: Race Revelations: Award-Winning Writers Tackle America's Most Difficult Subject, and The Reparations Reader: a Compilation of Essays Concerning Slavery and its Aftermath.

This is the third year of the Social Activism Speaker Series, which is aimed at inspiring Caltech students to apply their scientific and technical training to help resolve local and global issues. The series introduces the Caltech student body and the public to people who have dedicated their lives to the improvement of society. This series is coordinated by the Caltech Y, whose purpose is to provide resources and opportunities to enrich student life; to enable students to learn about themselves and their place in the world community through increased social, ethical and cultural awareness; and to address unmet student needs.

The Social Activism Speaker Series is made possible by the combined support of the Caltech President's Office, the James Irvine Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Graduate Student Council, Student Affairs, Campus Services, the Dean of Graduate Studies, the Women's Center, Avery House, Jack and Edith Roberts, the Alumni Association, and ASCIT.

Baxter Lecture Hall is located in the center of the Caltech campus. Parking is available in the Wilson Avenue parking structures between San Pasqual Street and Del Mar Boulveard.