Summary

Carol Anderson begins the essay by defining black rage and white rage. After Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, black people protested the killing of an unarmed black male. Some people would take this as an example of black rage. However, Anderson argues that it is actually an example of white rage. Black rage, as presented by the media, looks like protests and looting. White rage looks different. It is a kind of rage that has access to the mechanisms of the state. It uses the legal system to advance its aims.

Then, Anderson gives examples of white rage throughout history. First, the North’s victory in the Civil War created deep-seated resentment in the South. State legislatures in the South created the Black Codes, which severely restricted the rights and abilities of the newly freed black people. The Black Codes...