Tim Wise is one of America's most prolific public intellectuals. His
critically acclaimed books, high-profile media interviews, and
year-round speaking schedule have established him as an invaluable voice
in any discussion on issues of race and multicultural democracy.
In Under the Affluence, Wise discusses a related issue: economic
inequality and the demonization of those in need. He reminds us that
there was a time when the hardship of fellow Americans stirred feelings
of sympathy, solidarity for struggling families, and support for
policies and programs meant to alleviate poverty. Today, however,
mainstream discourse blames people with low income for their own
situation, and the notion of an intractable culture of poverty has
pushed our country in an especially ugly direction.
Tim Wise argues that far from any culture of poverty, it is the culture
of predatory affluence that deserves the blame for America's simmering
economic and social crises. He documents the increasing contempt for the
nation's poor, and reveals the forces at work to create and perpetuate
it. With clarity, passion and eloquence, he demonstrates how America's
myth of personal entitlement based on merit is inextricably linked to
pernicious racial bigotry, and he points the way to greater compassion,
fairness, and economic justice.
Tim Wise is the author of many books, including Dear White America
and Colorblind.
Tim Wise is one of the great public moralists in America today. In his
bracing new book, Under the Affluence, he brilliantly engages the
roots and ramifications of radical inequality in our nation, carefully
detailing the heartless war against the poor and the swooning addiction
to the rich that exposes the moral sickness at the heart of our culture.
Wise's stirring analysis of our predicament is more than a disinterested
social scientific treatise; this book is a valiant call to arms against
the vicious practices that undermine the best of the American ideals we
claim to cherish. Under the Affluence is vintage Tim Wise: smart,
sophisticated, conscientious, and righteously indignant at the betrayal
of millions of citizens upon whose backs the American Dream rests. This
searing testimony for the most vulnerable in our nation is also a
courageous cry for justice that we must all heed.--Michael Eric
Dyson, author of The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics
of Race in America
