White Rage
Ratings25
Average rating4.4
Phew, I had lots of rage reading this. Well researched and with a strong argument. Chapter 4 on the Reagan years is particularly damning and shows how the current political discourse is (horrifyingly) still the same.
Fascinating and infuriating. I'm ashamed how much of this I didn't know about - particularly the Reconstruction and Great Migration chapters. I need to find the paperback edition with the 2016 election afterword.
An excellent book to have in your arsenal of books on social justice, racial equality, and activism. I would read this in conjunction with [b:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness 6792458 The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Michelle Alexander https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328751532s/6792458.jpg 6996712].
This book managed to change my entire perspective on decades of American history. And it was weirdly comforting to see how many overtly-racist, anti-democratic politicians our country has survived so far? This is on my shortlist of books I would make everyone read if I could.
A must read.
Seriously...if you think of yourself as an ally you need to read this book.
Then get out there and start organizing, volunteering, and mobilizing people to make real change to the systemic racism that still permeates every are of our life here in the USA.
This is the first book on racial history that has absolutely left me enraged (ironic, given the title is “White Rage” and I am white).
I had no idea voter fraud was being touted during the Obama administration as a result of young voters (some who were POC and BlPOC) merely showing up to the polls and voting for their candidate. I had no idea the Jim Crow voter laws were coming back.
This book also gave me a historical understanding on why the GOP would work to get Trump into office (even knowing he had close ties with Putin): There is a long history in the US of “I will happily allow a leopard to eat my face off, as long as they first go after ‘those people' over there.”
The “After the Election: Imagining” section gave me goosebumps. After reading so much about the racist cycle in the US, reading about how citizens rose up to the challenge of preventing Trump from being able to rubber stamp policies through the branches of government (to the point of putting their money where their values lie and donating to the ACLU $24 mil over a weekend when the ACLU normally brings in $3-$4 mil a year) gives me so much hope for the future of our country to actively strive to stop allowing others to be disfranchised.
Gods, my heart. I know it's bad, but this brings home just how bad, and all the ways it's been kept this bad. This is an exceptional introduction on racism and just how awful white people can be. And she's still pretty tactful and nice.