White Rage

I saw a man reading this book in Starbucks in January and asked him if it was a good book. He responded with, “Define good”... He was very intense and I felt that I stepped into something I didn’t really mean to get into. I responded with, “Is it engaging? Should I read it? Can I recommend it to high school students?” He responded with, “It is a heavy topic, but an important work.” I ordered the book because if I am going to pester Starbucks patrons on their reading materials, I should probably back it up. I agree with Mr. Starbucks Man. This was a dense and informative read- an important read. I am a slow reader and I took notes, so it took me all summer. It is set up in such a way that each chapter highlights a major event in the progress of civil rights in this county- Reconstruction, Great Migrations, Brown vs Board, 60s Civil Rights, Obama. It describes the legal and political moves that occurred AFTER each one that basically undid each movement. This book is well cited as it includes 80 pages of end notes. Carol Anderson’s research game is on point. She is a university prof, so it makes sense. This is far more fact that opinion but there is enough commentary that if provides context and implications. We are a country taking two steps forward and one step back. The title refers to the back steps in the system- White Rage is the undoing of the progress of racial equality. It is the story of how we continue to fail in our attempts to reach this country’s established ideals. If it feels like we are fighting the same equality fight over and over again, it is because we are. This book helped me understand the word “systemic” that we hear so much in the term “systemic racism.” It helped me understand things like how mass incarceration happens, why things aren’t equal and how MLK didn’t fix it all. I understand it better now, but I would struggle to cite the facts to you unless I could have my book in hand. Two of my take aways are that systemic racism is harder to see than I thought (as a white person) and while I may have seen the news of the events that are discussed but I didn’t understand the context or implications of said events. If you are looking for a feel-good book, this isn’t it. It does end on a hopeful note, though. I would recommend this for people who want to dig into the historical aspect or need the research before you accept ideas that you probably didn’t learn in school- unless you majored in history. There are discussion questions in the back. I have audiobooked Stamped (Jason Reynolds) and I think Stamped covers similar ideas but in a more palatable delivery for teens.

This book gives the reader a thoroughly researched history of racism toward African Americans, with brutal honesty and conviction. When I say “thoroughly researched,” I mean that the references and notes at the back of the book take up at least one third of the entire book’s pages. Carol Anderson has used facts, statistics, direct quotes and stories to uncover the startlingly deplorable truth of this nation’s past. This is information that should be taught in schools to combat racism and systems of oppression in American society. Chapter one address how the Emancipation Declaration did little to actually free slaves. President Lincoln wanted to send the black population to live in Panama to avoid civil war. Nonetheless war ensued and African Americans were supposed to be given citizenship and black men the right to vote, but this was fought tooth and nail, particularly in Confederate states. Chapter two is about the great migration from below the mason Dixon line to the northern states. Even though African Americans were paid higher wages in the north, they were pushed into segregated areas, in overcrowded houses, some without indoor plumbing or heating. When they tried to move into white neighborhoods, they were often violently pushed out. Carol Anderson addresses the education system throughout this book. During segregation white schools were favored for government funding while black schools had very limited funding and there were often as many as 85 students to a teacher. “African Americans had to contend with “overcrowded classrooms, decrepit school buildings, inadequate numbers of textbooks, schools lacking libraries, cafeterias, gymnasiums.” ” Nonetheless black people longed for education after being forced to remain illiterate during slavery. “In the antebellum South, the enslaved were actively forbidden from learning to read and write.” Education grants them access to better jobs and healthcare etc. All Americans should have the right and access to a decent education in the United States. Chapter Three is about voting rights and education. The right to vote, doesn’t mean that any adult can vote. Systems have been put into place to prohibit the illiterate, under-educated and people without government issued identification from voting—a system that blatantly discriminates against African Americans who could barely access more than a 5th grade education in the 1940s! Chapter four is about the Civil Rights movement and how the government, media and schools have downplayed past racism and current conditions as well. White people are taught to believe that the treatment of black slaves wasn’t as harsh as it really and truly was. White people are taught to bitch about affirmative action as though it is reverse racism (discrimination against white people), to criticize poorer people’s access to Medicaid and other forms of social welfare support that might benefit the black community in particular, and to relegate racism to the Ku Klux Klan, despite the fact that America’s wealth in the 19th century was due predominantly to slavery. “In 1860 80% of the nation’s gross national product was tied to slavery. Yet in return for 250 years of toil, African Americans had received nothing but rape, whippings, murder, the dismemberment of families, and forced subjugation, illiteracy, and abject poverty.” Carol also discusses the war on drugs and how the media used words like “urban” to refer to African American communities and blame drug addiction and distribution on black people. Chapter five is about Barack Obama’s presidency. He was singled out for condemnation by the Republican party after the election and one of the responses was to make it more difficult for black people to vote, which, of course, results in the office of Donald Trump immediately after the first black president. Night and day different! Obama received the most death threats of all presidents—400 times more than President George W. Bush. He was badmouthed as irrational, and blamed for a Congress shutdown that cost the country $24 billion because they claimed that the government couldn’t function under his presidency. “Somehow many have convinced themselves that the man who pulled the United States back into some semblance of financial health, reduced unemployment to its lowest level in decades, secured health insurance for millions of citizens, ended one of our recent all-too-intractable wars in the Middle East, reduced the staggering deficit he inherited from George W. Bush, and masterminded the takedown of Osama Bin Laden actually hates America.” The Afterword of this book is like an additional chapter about the presidency of Donald Trump and his affiliation with Putin. North Carolina—where I happen to live—is one of the most gerrymandered states in America and Trump had the gall to thank the African American community for not voting in the 2016 election. Brilliant book. Every white person needs to read this book. Every American needs to read this book. Thank you, Carol Anderson, for educating me so that I can be part of the change and not part of the problem that is racism.

Anderson's fine volume should join Nancy Isenberg's "White Trash" and Arlie Russell Hochschild's "Strangers in Their Own Land" on the bookshelf of everyone who is dissatisfied with simply condemning white resistance to changes they see within American society. "White Rage" is a solid examination of the sources of that rage that has surfaced with unpleasant frequency in violence and racist rhetoric. Anderson helps us to see where it comes from, so that we might somehow deal with it.

Brilliant! Easy to read lucid composition evidenced by and confined within parameter of factual. The historical and contemporary thread of intentional anti black atrocities and invidiousness perpetrated by the same dominant racist villans never ceased and remains just as painful and maddening today. How can anyone not be indignant if not part of the problem? The overarching deceitfulness aligns aptly with the gut wrenching depths they instinctively sink to with such insouciance to justify their flagrant and incessant hatred of black people yet cannot do without them in a peculiar symbiosis. Typically, they see themselves as the victims of black people's mere existence.

I grew up in the South and thought I had a basic understanding of US history. This book presents the other side of the story. Is it completely balanced in its perspective? It's at least as balanced as my history books in school that ignored or barely mentioned these events. Well researched and well written, it should be read by everyone who wants to understand the state of race relations in the US.

A factual and frightening account of the lengths that certain elements of white culture have resorted to in order to preserve their existence.

The book was very enlightening. I had thought that after the Voters' Registration Act was passed in '64 that discrimination would be a thing of the past. I was very wrong. There were so many machinations to keep people of colour out of voting I wasn't shocked just dismayed. As far as education is concerned, I recently saw a report on Return on Investments. It stated that for every dollar invested the return was something around $2.70. So if money was invested in education the economy would be stronger.People would be better educated.