MSNBC guest Tim Wise mockingly stereotyped white people during a panel on racism Tuesday night by joking that white people eat at Olive Garden and do “hot yoga.”
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Wise, who is the author of “White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son,” joined MSNBC for a special town hall event on “Everyday Racism in America.”
Wise brought up the rise of gentrification in U.S. cities and asserted that white people originally left city centers to get away from people of color but are now coming back and displacing minorities to enjoy the benefits of city life. Much to the audience’s delight, Wise threw out some basic stereotypes about white people during his explanation.
“The irony is the gentrifiers of today, their parents or their grandparents ran away from the city to get away from black and brown folk,” Wise argued. “Now, their children and their grandchildren are saying, ‘Oh, the suburbs, there are only so many Olive Gardens I can go to.'”
“‘I need to go back and get my life in the city. But when I do that, I need my hot yoga studio and my pottery studio and my stuff represented, and if you intrude on that I will then call the police,'” Wise said, continuing his pretend inner monologue of the typical white person.