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White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide Kindle Edition
New York TimesBestseller
USA Today Bestseller
A New York TimesNotable Book of the Year
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year
A Boston Globe Best Book of 2016
A Chicago Review of Books Best Nonfiction Book of 2016
From the Civil War to our combustible present, acclaimed historian Carol Anderson reframes our continuing conversation about race, chronicling the powerful forces opposed to black progress in America.
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 suggesting that this was, instead, "white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames," she argued, "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, and then the election of America's first black President, led to the expression of white rage that has been as relentless as it has been brutal.
Carefully linking these and other historical flashpoints 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.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBloomsbury USA
- Publication dateMay 31, 2016
- File size4026 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[A] slim but persuasive volume . . . A sobering primer on the myriad ways African American resilience and triumph over enslavement, Jim Crow and intolerance have been relentlessly defied by the very institutions entrusted to uphold our democracy." - Washington Post
"White Rage is a riveting and disturbing history that begins with Reconstruction and lays bare the efforts of whites in the South and North alike to prevent emancipated black people from achieving economic independence, civil and political rights, personal safety, and economic opportunity." - The Nation
"[White Rage] is an extraordinarily timely and urgent call to confront the legacy of structural racism bequeathed by white anger and resentment, and to show its continuing threat to the promise of American democracy." - Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review
"I’ve read a fair bit of African-American history, but White Rage, by Carol Anderson, which is beautifully written and exhaustively researched, illuminated for me just how deliberately education policy in the United States disenfranchised African-Americans." - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, bestselling author of AMERICANAH and HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
"An unflinching look at America's long history of structural and institutionalized racism, White Rage is a timely and necessary examination of white anger and aggression towards black America . . . A compelling look at American history, White Rage has never seemed more relevant than it does today." - Bustle, “17 Books On Race Every White Person Needs To Read”
"White Rage belongs in a place of honor on the shelf next to other seminal books about the African-American experience such as James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns, and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow." - Santa Barbara Independent
"A really insightful book about the effects and backlash that have followed the passage of landmark civil rights legislation throughout our nation’s history. It serves as both a description and predictor of the political movements that are likely to happen the next time our nation passes such major legislation." - Tammy Duckworth, New York Times Book Review “By The Book”
"[A] powerful survey of American history as seen in the violent white reactions to black progress, from Reconstruction to the great migration to the current political landscape." - Boston Globe
"Anderson has shown, with her well-sourced (she has several hundred detailed footnotes) and readable book, why the fights over race and access to the perquisites of American citizenship grind on . . . White Rage lends perspective and insight for those of us who are willing to confront, study and learn from the present situation in this country." - St. Louis Dispatch
"Two steps forward, one step back: White Rage deftly crafts the pattern of how White backlash has always countered African American progress." - ZORA, The 100 greatest books ever written by African American women
"White Rage is a harrowing account of our national history during the century and a half since the Civil War--even more troubling for what it exposes about our present, our deep and abiding racial divide. This is necessary reading for anyone interested in understanding--and perfecting--our union." - Natasha Trethewey, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for NATIVE GUARD and Two-term Poet Laureate of the United States
"Anderson’s keen analysis presents a powerful portrait of white rage and entitlement--two shameful forces that continue to characterize our national conversation about race." - Esquire, “If You Want to Learn About Anti-Racism, These 10 Books Are a Start”
"Riveting" - Michael Eric Dyson, author of TEARS WE CANNOT STOP, for the New York Times “By the Book”
"Brilliant" - Robin DiAngelo, author of WHITE FRAGILITY, for the Amazon Book Review
"Anderson lays out a troubling yet persistent pattern in American history that started during Reconstruction. For every advancement achieved by African Americans, there is an unequal and ferociously opposite reaction. . . . Anderson’s book lays out the horrific story." - Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post
"One (of many) essential history books that helps unearth some of the truths about racism in this country and how all white people have benefited from it. It inspires the reader to continue to educate themselves on how to be a better and more informed ally." - Theo Germaine, Chicago Review of Books
"In every episode of White Rage Anderson amplifies and elongates this initial claim [white America’s seething resistance to African Americans’ sociopolitical advancements] into a striking argument about the nation’s failure to recognize African Americans as full members the citizenry. Though stretching a stand-alone essay into an extended study doesn’t work very often, White Rage operates efficiently and elegantly, offering readers new intelligence about American experience. Following Anderson, one gains insight by accrual." - Lit Hub
"Professor Carol Anderson’s recent book White Rage is a tragic, yet invaluable contribution to our understanding of race relations throughout American history." - Medium, “We Need to Talk About Systemic Racism"
"It's shocking, beautifully written, and, with white supremacy knocking on the White House door, more important than ever. Some books are great, some books are essential. White Rage is the latter." - Ed Yong, The Millions
"Truly, I couldn't put it down. [White Rage] draws a razor-sharp line from the Civil War to Trayvon Martin with all the stops in between. If you want context for . . . the life we're living in this country right this minute, I urge you to pick up a copy. [Its] 160 pages have the power to change your life." - Ann Patchett, Parnassus Musing
"Powerful . . . Like a meticulous prosecutor assembling her case, Anderson lays out a profoundly upsetting vision of an America driven to waves of reactionary white anger whenever it’s confronted with black achievement." - Bookforum
"There is [a] book that I think we all need to read and read again: Carol Anderson’s White Rage. It so plainly shows us that whenever African Americans started to make any strides (in education, voting, employment, home ownership), those gains were a threat to the status quo of inequality--those strides sparked incredibly intense and well-organized blowback--all of which leads me to appreciate just how insidious and persistent racial hatred is in the U.S. We have to get smarter, bystanders … we need your help, it is not enough to proclaim that you’re not racist, we need your help." - Michelle Williams, Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Angelopoulos Professor in Public Health and International Development
"Bracing . . . It might all seem very conspiratorial and cloak-and-dagger, were it not also true. Reading through all the frightfully inventive ways in which America makes racial inequality a matter of law (and order) has a dizzying effect: like watching a quick-cut montage of social injustice spanning nearly half a millennium." - The Globe and Mail
"[F]or readers who want to understand the sense of grievance and pain that many African Americans feel today, White Rage offers a clearly written and well-thought-out overview of an aspect of U.S. history with which the country is still struggling to come to terms." - Foreign Affairs
"Prescient . . . provides necessary perspective on the racial conflagrations in the U.S." - Kirkus Reviews
"Anderson’s mosaic of white outrage deserves contemplation by anyone interested in understanding U.S. race relations, past and present." - Library Journal
"[An] engaging, thought-provoking work . . . Anderson’s clear, ardent prose detailing the undermining of America’s stated ideals and democratic norms is required reading for anyone interested in the state of American social discourse." - Booklist
"Few historians write with the grace, clarity, and intellectual verve Carol Anderson summons in this book. We are tethered to history, and with White Rage, Anderson adeptly highlights both that past and the tenacious grip race holds on the present. There is a handful of writers whose work I consider indispensable. Professor Anderson is high up on that list." - William Jelani Cobb, author of THE SUBSTANCE OF HOPE
"To overcome our racial history, Americans must first learn our racial history--as it truly and painfully happened. This powerful book is the place to start." - David Von Drehle, author of RISE TO GREATNESS: ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND AMERICA'S MOST PERILOUS YEAR
"Anderson's book compellingly recenters America's racial narrative on the propulsive power of white fury. The sentiments she traces, and the force they carry, don't just explain our political past; they also reveal our political present." - The Week, Ezra Klein’s 6 Favorite Books
"A short, simple history about the racial divide in America--but really approachable." - Tim Wise, “Good Morning America”
"I highly recommend reading . . . Carol Anderson’s White Rage to help white people understand their place in the reproduction of racism and how to fight it." - The Bakersfield Californian
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B01D1RUOJU
- Publisher : Bloomsbury USA; 1st edition (May 31, 2016)
- Publication date : May 31, 2016
- Language : English
- File size : 4026 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 248 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #59,898 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
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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.
Dr. Anderson's section on Neshoba and Ronald Reagan's speech--packed to the brim with dog whistle references--which even in its choice of venue reflects that administration's agenda, as well as the section on the war on drugs which follows are excellent: clearly written and successful in their exposition of the roots of this rage. Her sections on the multitude of efforts--especially at higher levels in the legal world/Supreme Court--to turn back hard-won Civil Rights and educational opportunities are both cogent and readily accessible to both academics and lay people.
By showing the many ways in which attempts have been made to hold back African Americans, Dr. Anderson also underlines the importance of awareness, thereby dispelling the notion that a color-blind approach to racism--a "just get over it (slavery)" attitude--is acceptable. I also applaud her willingness to broach the topic of others who are disenfranchised, which include Native Americans, Latinos/Latinas, Asians, Iraqis, and Afghanis, as it opens the arena to discussion about other people of color in the US. As she imagines in the brief concluding chapter, what if all of this anger, rage, and ultimately many resources were devoted to something more positive than maintaining one group's dominance?
Spot-on book, necessary reading for all. It's hard to imagine someone of any "race" or ethnicity who would not benefit from reading this one.
Top reviews from other countries

If you want a clear picture of White Political oppression based on classic divide and rule tactics this book describes it and defines it clearly. By Defining the outcomes of the US Civil war and the supposed reconstruction methods used to supposedly alleviate Black oppression, the book describes the ongoing modus operandi of White political mechanics, essentially racist and divisive that pervades both Northern and Southern States. Without being Rabid , Moralising or being inflammatory the Author sets out the case and defines a clear line from then till now.
There is no clear answers at the end of the process, and the author in one sense feels that the line of White Racism will continue regardless with Trump being the latest incumbent to promote it. However it does speak out against this all pervasive and destructive force endemic to US culture, with a clear voice for White people to hear if they want to listen.



