White Rage

The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide

De: Carol Anderson

Narrado por: Pamela Gibson

National Book Critics Circle Award winner, Criticism, 2016.

As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014 and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as 'black rage', historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, 'white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames,' she wrote, 'everyone had ignored the kindling.'

Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains. The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with the Black Codes and Jim Crow; the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South while taxpayer dollars financed segregated white private schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 triggered a coded but powerful response: the so-called Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs that disenfranchised millions of African Americans while propelling presidents Nixon and Reagan into the White House.

Carefully linking these and other historical flash points when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage.

Compelling and dramatic in the unimpeachable history it relates, White Rage will add an important new dimension to the national conversation about race in America.

©2016 Carol Anderson (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Narrator Pamela Gibson perfectly conveys the insightful research and writing in this book about civil rights in the U.S. by an Emory University historian. Anderson contends that when African-Americans make even the slightest progress, a subtle, almost invisible, white rage in the form of opposition reverses what little progress has been made. An example is the current suppression of Black votes under the guise of voter fraud prevention. Gibson's delivery registers rage and compassion where appropriate. No one - from Lincoln to Trump - escapes criticism. Hard truths and supporting citations are clearly stated, leaving no confusion for listeners. Also, Gibson ably presents Anderson's unexpected humor, for example, when she talks about the current paralysis of the U.S. Senate." (AudioFile Magazine)

Excellent history, modern analysis less so

This book is written in a clear and engaging style, and feels a bit like an abbreviated tour through race relations in the United States. A good primer for those wanting a roadmap of the fraught history of government, whites, and minorities (with the bulk focused on black Americans), outlining the mutation of slavery into Jim Crow into less obvious, but still insidious, institutional and legal aspects that act as limits to full citizenship to this day. My biggest complaint comes as Anderson enters the last decade or two. Here, she does a little less explanation and sometimes strays into a biased view of the Obama presidency, at times feeling less academic than anecdotal, with a failure to turn a turn a critical eye towards or to discuss any nuances in some of the recent permutations of racism and white privilege. Despite these shortcomings, the book is quite good overall, though at turns horrifying and rage inducing, and worth the time for those that need a refresher in American history or those who want a concise accounting of America's institutional, legal, and cultural racism.

Book on racism in America should be required reading

Every American over the age should read this book. A lot of American history leaves out how much of an impact racism has had and continues to have on our society. This is an excellent overview.

Excellent analysis!

Ms Anderson provides us with an
historical overview and excellent analysis of the real problem plaguing this country:"White Rage"

eye opening.

I loved it. It was eye opening and inciteful. It follows all the way to current times. It is a must read.

Recommend Reading

This book is thought provoking. Need to explore the historical reasons why white people hate black people.

Eyes Opened

As a mix race male of white and black, I thought I knew the history of the civil rights and the back lash from it. I was dead wrong. This book has opened my eyes. I saw other reviews saying the book only blamed white people, I see it as "White Political Culture" that work against the newly freed black people. And from there to the president, trying to under mine the black race in America.

Sobering.

Thank you, Ms. Anderson. As a Black woman in my 50's I am intimately familiar with the ravages of racism and the blindspot white people have when systemic racism is explained to them (or when one attempts to explain syatemic racism to them).
Pres Obama's election did not usher in a post-racial society. Ugh. I did, however, allow many of us to see the post-hood wearing racists at their finest...
Believing that racism was dead was an attempt by "progressive" whites folks to free them from examining their white privilege. Racism has not and will not be irradicated until white people are ready to unlearn the cultural conditioning engrained in them since birth, the truth about the founding of the United States and the fragile white male ego: they aren't more deserving of anything, Black people are not inferior, Black people didn't invent race and we have every right to demand respect, and Black people cant be racist.
The US built this country on the backs of Black and brown people, and used poor whites to keep us divided.
We can accomplish more if we work together, side by side.

this book hits high marks for accuracy

I loved it. it was a fast paced book outlining the last 150 years of white supremacy trying to keep the non-white races from advancing with the help of the government that is sworn to protect everyone. this book should be read by all.

When will we become the country we say we are?

The author did a good job of organizing the book around the issues and why this type of white rage continues to grow. The point that she makes about the halls of power (civil rights, voting suppression laws, criminal justice system, legislation), is the scary part, that they are just as destructive without having to wear white sheets or burning crosses. The assessment of the issues were straightforward with lots of data points, which supported her thought process that until society is willing to face the truth, we are doomed to repeat the past when it comes to racist sentiments and actions. The book laid out intentional disregard and abandonment of a country to ensure a more perfect union to all its citizens. Most importantly though, it showed a country that is the leader of the free world with democracy built into the fabric of its existence successfully reinscribed slavery by another name versus eradicating it in any form or matter. Her thought process that society's inability to confront white rage for what it is, allows it to continue to provide the cover and approval for racial hostility and violence.

Learning tool

Writer gives a great and accurate grasp of history from a black person perspective today.