The attention to so-called “black rage” during the 2014 rioting in Ferguson, Missouri, clouded what one historian says was the actual root of the unrest: more of the “white rage” that has punctuated our country’s history dating to the Civil War and emancipation.
 
In a discussion of her book White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, Emory University’s Carol Anderson chronicles what she says is powerful and recurring opposition to black progress in America. Note the surge in states imposing voter registration requirements and their disparate racial impact. A series of Supreme Court rulings has upheld racial profiling by police and made it more difficult to prove bias in jury selection, arrests, and other instances.
 
It’s a lack of white acceptance of full and equal rights for blacks, Anderson maintains, that fuels many of today’s race problems.