Response to White Rage
Dear Professor Anderson,
I can't help but feel rage. I'm so mad at the discrimination, violence and virtual enslavement that people of color have felt in the United States, especially after the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment. I am white, so I guess it could be described as White Rage, but probably not the anger you so eloquently write about in your book. The terrible acts you describe, like the incredibly violent and indescribable lynching of Mary Turner and the systematic efforts by the government to deny basic rights like a decent education to millions of black children, left me so mad. I had of course read about lynchings before, and knew about various actions by the government that were extremely discriminatory, but I had never been faced with it so forcefully, as I think all white people should be on a daily basis. I know it is easy for me to wade back into an ignorance, but this isn't something I want to do. How do you think it is best for someone to become an ally in the movement against White Supremacy? I didn't vote for Trump, but I feel like it isn't enough just to sit back and use that as a defense. Too many people, as you said in the book and I myself are guilty of, simply condemn blatant forms of racism like the KKK and then continue on living their lives. But I'm at a crossroads, I think I need to do more to help. Does not living in a place I might want to with good schools and other benefits because it is a pseudo-segregated neighborhood constitute enough? Is spending a summer registering voters, enough? Is there ever a such thing as enough? If I don't devote my life to helping end oppression, can I really consider myself no one of the oppressors?
I know these are big questions and I am not writing you so that you can "absolve me" of historical sin and perhaps present wrongdoing, I am genuinely curious. Also, I'm angry.
Best,
A Concerned Citizen
I can't help but feel rage. I'm so mad at the discrimination, violence and virtual enslavement that people of color have felt in the United States, especially after the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment. I am white, so I guess it could be described as White Rage, but probably not the anger you so eloquently write about in your book. The terrible acts you describe, like the incredibly violent and indescribable lynching of Mary Turner and the systematic efforts by the government to deny basic rights like a decent education to millions of black children, left me so mad. I had of course read about lynchings before, and knew about various actions by the government that were extremely discriminatory, but I had never been faced with it so forcefully, as I think all white people should be on a daily basis. I know it is easy for me to wade back into an ignorance, but this isn't something I want to do. How do you think it is best for someone to become an ally in the movement against White Supremacy? I didn't vote for Trump, but I feel like it isn't enough just to sit back and use that as a defense. Too many people, as you said in the book and I myself are guilty of, simply condemn blatant forms of racism like the KKK and then continue on living their lives. But I'm at a crossroads, I think I need to do more to help. Does not living in a place I might want to with good schools and other benefits because it is a pseudo-segregated neighborhood constitute enough? Is spending a summer registering voters, enough? Is there ever a such thing as enough? If I don't devote my life to helping end oppression, can I really consider myself no one of the oppressors?
I know these are big questions and I am not writing you so that you can "absolve me" of historical sin and perhaps present wrongdoing, I am genuinely curious. Also, I'm angry.
Best,
A Concerned Citizen
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