Carol Anderson on White Rage

"Since the days of enslavement, African Americans have fought to gain access to quality education. Education can be transformative. It reshapes the health outcomes of a people; it breaks the cycle of poverty; it improves housing conditions; it raises the standard of living. Perhaps, most meaningfully, educational attainment significantly increases voter participation. In short, education strengthens a democracy." Dr. Carol Anderson is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide, One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy, and The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. At the core of her research agenda is how policy is made and unmade, how racial inequality and racism affect that process and outcome, and how those who have taken the brunt of those laws, executive orders, and directives have worked to shape, counter, undermine, reframe, and, when necessary, dismantle the legal and political edifice used to limit their rights and their humanity. She joins us to discuss her work, in particular, chapter 3 from White Rage - "Burning Brown to the Ground", which looks at the White rage backlash to the Brown v. Board decision, and all of the ways that the progress promised in the decision were undermined both in the immediate aftermath of the decision, and continuing through to today. With a gift for making the illegible legible, Dr. Anderson provides us with a clear eyed look at the history that has led to the widely inequitable education system we have today. And while the topic is heavy, she brings joy and laughter to the conversation in a way that can only leave you smiling through the pain. LINKS: White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Nation's Divide We Are Not Yet Equal - a young readers version of White Rage One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. Eye's Off The Prize - Dr. A