On Sept 22, Tim Wise, respected anti-racist writer and activist will be visiting ETSU and giving a free public lecture, “But Some of My Best Friends and My President are Black!” The event, which will take place in the Martha Street Culp Auditorium at 7 p.m., has already reached capacity; however, the speech will be telecast in the Culp Ballroom as well as the Brown Hall Auditorium.

“I got to see Tim a couple of years ago at a conference,” said Joy Fulkerson, coordinator for Greek life and service programs. “Several of us, for some time, have wanted to bring him here.”

Wise, who has spoken at more than 400 college campuses in 48 states and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and ABC, was asked to speak at ETSU by the Race Relations Dialogue Task Force.

“The task force is a direct result of last year’s blackface incident,” said Jared Story, community service programs assistant. “It’s a committee that was charged by President Stanton to increase dialogue on race relations around campus and to report back to him recommendations to improve campus climate.”

Last year’s blackface incident, which took place at a fraternity party, was only one of many racist incidents on campus last year, Story said.

“We went and visited with several campus groups,” Fulkerson said. “We’ve had representatives from our Greek community on the task force itself.”

Tim Wise has been informed of the specific incidents and will be speaking about them at the lecture Tuesday.

In addition to the public lecture, Wise will also be giving workshops and meeting with directors of the Student Affairs Division, the President’s Council and also with academic deans and department chairs.

Wise has written four books, and many professors at ETSU have been having their students read his work before the lecture, Story said.

“This is an opportunity for us to look at ourselves and see what our individual responsibility is,” Fulkerson said.

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