Tim Wise's Critical Race Podcast will explore news and politics, with a focus on systemic racism, the link between race and economic justice, and the struggle against Israeli apartheid from the perspective of an anti-Zionist Jew.
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Although rape culture is bigger than fraternities, and indeed far larger than a problem of colleges and universities, with fraternity men three times more likely to commit sexual assault than men who aren’t in frats, it seems obvious that for guys, Greek life is a major part of the problem. In this commentary, I explain why banning frats is a valuable step, not for the men who are the most likely to be predators — they will be dangerous with or without them, and will need to be protected against in other ways — but for men who would likely never engage in sexual assault, but for the toxic environment of fraternities and the sick pressures they create for men to perform masculinity for the approval of other men.
Just as particular environmental conditions and contexts explain other forms of criminal offending, so too with rape, such that if we can change those environments and contexts, we may well reduce the number of offenses. Although the underlying problems of misogyny and toxic masculinity will remain and require a broader cultural reckoning, this step—which schools could take immediately—could produce immediate results with virtually no downside, as fraternities provide nothing of tangible benefit to campuses that can compensate for the damage they clearly do.
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13 Oct 2026
Episode 32: Ken Paxton and the Christian Conservative Con
Recently, it was revealed that Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who calls himself a devout Christian, insists the country is a Christian nation and wants the Ten Commandments posted in schools, doesn’t regularly attend church, and cannot name the last church he attended. It’s just one more example of a religious right-wing evangelical saying one thing while doing another. But as I explain in this commentary, it is fully consistent with a longstanding evangelical pattern. Such “Christians” are often the worst people in terms of how they treat others — and they surely ignore the teaching of Jesus regularly — which raises the question: do they feel free to be such awful people because their faith tells them all they have to do is believe in Jesus as their savior in order to enter the Kingdom of God? I mean, if that’s all it takes, and one’s “works” don’t matter, these folks can feel free to be horrible people and still have a workaround, so to speak.
It’s almost as if evangelical, fundamentalist Christianity is an emotional protection racket for antisocial personalities and all-around a******s—a way for them to tell themselves that no matter how horrible they are, God will still reward them, while sending the Jews, Muslims, and everyone else, no matter how many poor people they feed, or sick people they care for, to a lake of fire. With people like Ken Paxton and Donald Trump garnering the votes of these “good Christians,” it pretty well blows up the facade that they were ever a religiously motivated movement. They are just grifters and power-hungry zealots. Nothing more.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timjacobwise.substack.com/subscribe (https://timjacobwise.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
12 Oct 2026
Episode 31: Reflections on Zionism on Indigenous Peoples’ Day
For this Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I take on the issue of Jewish “indigeneity” to the land of Israel/Palestine, or the broader Levant region. Zionists claim that our ancestral connection to the land confers a right to it, thousands of years after our diaspora began, but as I explain in this commentary, at least for Ashkenazi Jews, this position has several problems.
First, I note that, yes, modern Ashkenazi Jews (about half of all Jews, and the vast majority of American Jews), as with their Sephardic and Arab Jewish counterparts, can often trace at least some of their ancestry back to the Levant. Claims to the contrary, popularized largely by antisemites (and by some Jewish leftists who had far better intentions but no better information), have been debunked conclusively by genetic research. However:
* Those links are less solid than Zionists believe (there is also a lot of non-Levantine admixture, especially on the mitochondrial line).
* Those links are irrelevant anyway to the issue of whether or not Jews have more right to that land than Palestinians, as they are indigenous too, and in fact are genetically very close to the Jews who trace their lineage there.
* Also, whatever indigeneity can be claimed is ancient and irrelevant in the modern moment
* Indigeneity does not confer a right to establish a particular form of government or oppress others who are also indigenous, or even those who are not. And finally,
* The fact that converts to Judaism with absolutely no Jewish ancestry at all can claim full Jewish citizenship under the law of return and benefit from all the rights and privileges of Jewishness in Israel proves indigeneity has no meaning in the Israeli context. Conversion can not confer ancestral lineage.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timjacobwise.substack.com/subscribe (https://timjacobwise.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
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