White rage is not about visible violence
White rage is not about visible violence, but rather it works its way through the courts, the legislatures, and a range of government bureaucracies. […] It is not the Klan. White rage does not have to wear sheets, burn crosses, or take to the streets. Working the halls of power, it can achieve its ends far more effectively, far more destructively. […] It is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem: rather it is blackness with ambition, with drive, with purpose, with aspirations, and with demands for full and equal citizenship. It is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation, to give up. A formidable array of policy assaults and legal contortions has consistently punished black resilience, black resolve.
And all the while white rage manages to maintain not only the upper hand but also the moral high ground. It’s the endless narratives about a culture of black poverty that devalues education, hard work, family, and ambition. it’s a mantra told so often that some African American themselves have come to believe it. Few even think of questioning the stories of black fathers abandoning their children, of rampant drug use in black neighborhoods, of African American children hating education because school is “acting white”—all of which have been disproved but remain foundational in American lore.” [Carol Anderson, White Rage]
Discuss with reference to the class readings and pertinent Moodle articles.
