Social activist Tim Wise speaks at 2003 Commencement
Full Text of Tim Wise's Commencement Address
Tim Wise, a white social activist, speaker, and writer, was the guest speaker at the 2003 Grinnell College Exercises of Commencement.
Wise, senior adviser to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute, Nashville, Tenn., has spoken to more than 75,000 people in 46 states, and on more than 275 college campuses.
"If the word 'diversity' is separated from the concept of equity, it becomes meaningless," Wise says. "It's not about holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya." It is first and foremost about understanding the institutional and structural barriers that prevent effective diversity and preclude equity."
Wise earned a B.A. in political science from Tulane University, where his involvement in the anti-apartheid movement secured international attention and the personal thanks of South African civil rights leader Nelson Mandela and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
