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Analysis Of White Rage By Carol Anderson

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Lately in the media police brutality has been a very popular topic. Most of the instances reported in the media are of white police officers killing African Americans for seemingly nothing. These reports have strengthened the divide between both races. In “White Rage” by Carol Anderson the issue of police brutality is touched on within the first few words of her essay. Anderson talks about many acts of aggression at the hands of white men, and she seems to really focus on an unarmed African American male who was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. “Black and Blue,” by Garnette Cadogan continues with the struggles of police brutality in America, but also touches on the abuse in his home country of Jamaica. Cadogan …show more content…

She then goes on to talk about how the justice system criminalizes these deceased black men into “big” and “scary” to try to make them look guilty or deserving of whatever happened to them and save the officers involved. Anderson really focuses on this one case and how it impacted her thoughts and feelings towards the white America.
Although Carol Anderson talks about how police brutality was most likely led by racial prejudice, she also talks about how that shooting was about more than skin color. She states that some of these shootings and attacks may have been led by salary and income. Anderson says, “So when you think of Ferguson, don’t just think of black resentment in the criminal justice system that allows a white police officer to put six bullets into an unarmed black teen. Consider the economic dislocation of black America.” (87). She talks about how, on average, white Americans tend to make more than black Americans and how this may actually play a big factor in these shootings across the world. She also talks about how before the recession of 2008 whites made about four times as much as blacks and that rose to six times their income by 2010. This economic divide could explain some of these unlawful killings that are shown in the media. Carol Anderson refers to idea that if people start to look past the obvious racism led shootings and look more into other causes and biases, then there may be hope for a more peaceful society.
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