Book 142: White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson

Carol Anderson's White Rage absolutely wrecked me. I will never forget this book and the horrors within it. And yet there are important lessons, that we as Americans (yes, all Americans) need to acknowledge and own as part of our history.

In White Rage, Anderson documents the African American experience from slavery to present day. She effortlessly ties together aspects of governance and legislation and shows how African Americans were screwed from the beginning, and essentially have been screwed every day since. She describes American presidents who publicly promised equality, then made moves to reduce African American voters' rights, labor laws, and more. This book literally rewrites history, and has sixty pages of references backing up every single statement.

As a peachy-tan American, I will never fully understand the experiences of my fellow citizens with darker skin. I was raised in an integrated Philadelphia neighborhood and never really understood why racism still existed. White Rage gave me a glimpse into the fear and discrimination that no other book before or since has instilled. It made me deeply consider what my life would be had I been born a different color. It gave me a new appreciation for the courage of those who fought for equal rights and continue the fight in 2017, an unimaginable 152 years after the Civil War was ended. It also made me more aware of our country's history of white supremacy, and made me fear extremism even more than I already did.

Carol Anderson is a hell of an author, and this book brings to light many aspects of American history that some would rather not be told. This book made me a more cognizant person, and I would encourage everyone, from every walk of life, to pick this up and devour it like I did.