A Conversation with Tim Wise about White Privilege and White Identity Politics in the Age of Donald Trump

The Chauncey DeVega Show is a labor of love. It is also very time intensive. Each weekly episode takes an average of 7 hours to produce. Twice a year–once in June and once in December–I push out the old begging bowl in the form of an online fundraiser to support the podcast and my other projects. If you value the podcast as well as my writing–and are able–please click on the right hand side of the screen at chaunceydevega.com on the Paypal link and throw in some silver, gold, pennies or paper. The monies will go towards the video podcast series that I am still developing (it is more expensive than I originally thought) and to help finance an additional project that is in its early stages.

The Chauncey DeVega Show has featured some amazing guests including Van Jones, Timothy Snyder, Sheldon Solomon, Bandy Lee, Tim Wise, Cornell Belcher, Malcolm Nance, Naveed Jamali, Philip Zimbardo and so many others as part of my effort to help the public understand the threat to American democracy and the world posed by Donald Trump and his regime. I have received a good number of offers to advertise on the podcast as well as on my site Indomitable but have always refused them. I can do this in part because of the kind donations that good folks such as yourself offer up during the twice a year fundraiser. I set a fixed amount for the fundraisers in June and December and then conclude them once that goal is reached. We are one third of the way there. With some kind donations from just a few of the many thousands of people who listen to each podcast episode and read my essays online each month, I hope that we can reach this goal very quickly.

Anti-racism activist, author, and scholar Tim Wise is the guest on this week’s edition of The Chauncey DeVega Show. Tim Wise is the author of numerous books including his most recent Under the Affluence: Shaming the Poor, Praising the Rich and Sacrificing the Future of America. He is also the subject of a great new documentary called White Like Me.

This is the third time that Tim has stopped by the virtual bar and salon–and our first conversation since the election of Donald Trump.

During this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Tim and Chauncey discuss what Trump’s election reveals about white identity politics, the resurgence of “white nationalism” as something “respectable” under Trump’s regime, questions of empathy (or not) for Trump’s “white working class” voters and the white backlash to Barack Obama.

Maya Rupert is also a guest on this week’s episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. She is the author of a great new essay at The Atlantic about questions of race, gender, and representation in the new Wonder Woman movie. Maya and Chauncey offer their thoughts about Wonder Woman, share some concerns and hopes about the broader DC film universe, and do a little script doctoring along the way.

In this week’s episode Chauncey DeVega shares some insights about James Comey’s testimony before the Senate and wonders if this is all a just an episode of the Scooby-Doo cartoon. Chauncey also shares some new research that further demonstrates the power of racism and nativism and bigotry among Trump’s “white working class” voters. At the end of this week’s episode of the podcast, Chauncey also asks the listeners for advice about reconnecting with some relatives he hasn’t spoken to in almost two decades.