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A review by ponch22
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
5.0
With this book, I get to check the final book off my 2017 Reading for Growth Challenge—a book of any genre that addresses current events.
I got this novel directly from the above website (the author was reading it for a book club) and I’m so glad I read it. The very important #BlackLivesMatter movement is just one minor part of [a:Carol Anderson|184936|Carol Anderson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png]’s [b:White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide|26073085|White Rage The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide|Carol Anderson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456093492s/26073085.jpg|46010383].
“White rage” was coined by Anderson in an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post discussing the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, MO. This book is a history, showing how much African Americans have struggled since the end of the Civil War and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.
From the mistakes that were made during Reconstruction after the Civil War, to the levels of racism in the North AND South during the Great Migration. From all the tricks southern states tried to avoid Brown v. Board of Education to the new, hidden racism that arose after the Civil and Voting Rights Acts of the 1960s. From the War on Drugs that was created to mass incarcerate minorities (thanks to a drug problem caused by the government) all the way up to the struggles Obama faced as our first black President.
A century and a half of disgraceful actions are summed up but Anderson ends with some hope. There were many times we as a nation made the plight of the black man worse than it should ever have been—the book points out time and time again how white men in power did everything they could to separate, humiliate, and denigrate their fellow man. But this cycle does not need to continue.
I got this novel directly from the above website (the author was reading it for a book club) and I’m so glad I read it. The very important #BlackLivesMatter movement is just one minor part of [a:Carol Anderson|184936|Carol Anderson|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png]’s [b:White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide|26073085|White Rage The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide|Carol Anderson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456093492s/26073085.jpg|46010383].
“White rage” was coined by Anderson in an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post discussing the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, MO. This book is a history, showing how much African Americans have struggled since the end of the Civil War and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.
From the mistakes that were made during Reconstruction after the Civil War, to the levels of racism in the North AND South during the Great Migration. From all the tricks southern states tried to avoid Brown v. Board of Education to the new, hidden racism that arose after the Civil and Voting Rights Acts of the 1960s. From the War on Drugs that was created to mass incarcerate minorities (thanks to a drug problem caused by the government) all the way up to the struggles Obama faced as our first black President.
A century and a half of disgraceful actions are summed up but Anderson ends with some hope. There were many times we as a nation made the plight of the black man worse than it should ever have been—the book points out time and time again how white men in power did everything they could to separate, humiliate, and denigrate their fellow man. But this cycle does not need to continue.
Full voting rights for American citizens, funding and additional resources for quality schools, and policing and court systems in which racial bias is not sanctioned by law—all these are well within our grasp,Anderson summarized on the final page. We must recognize the White Rage that has grown since the Emancipation Proclamation and strip it of its power—choosing “a different future.”