We are broadcasting from Atlanta, Georgia,
home to Emory University. And I want to bring into this conversation
Carol Anderson, who’s chair of Emory’s African American Studies Department. Carol Anderson’s book, White Rage: The Unspoken
Truth of Our Racial Divide, just won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Jurors called it, quote, "a searing critique
of white America’s systematic resistance to African-American advancement." Carol Anderson, from that picture I saw of
you winning the award, you were rather surprised. But the power of your book has not been lost
on anyone. In these last minutes we have together, can
you talk about the significance of what’s happening right now? CAROL ANDERSON: Yeah. What we’re seeing right now is the penultimate
in white rage. We had a black president. We had African Americans and Latinos coming
out in scores voting for the first time, participating in this democracy. And the response has been a legislative and
judicial—given the Shelby County v. Holder decision by the Supreme Court, gutting the
Voting Rights Act—response to, in fact, undermine and undercut that black advancement. What we now have is Donald Trump, because
it is with voter suppression, given felony disfranchisement in Florida, given the chicanery
in North Carolina, the chicanery in Wisconsin with all of the voter IDs, back and forth,
that in fact led to this very narrowed victory that put a white nationalist regime in power
in the United States. And from there, you then get these policies,
such as Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, who happened to greet Donald Trump surrounded
by women in antebellum dresses, to give you a sense of what "Make America great again"
means to them. AMY GOODMAN: The Sessions Justice Department
took down the civil rights page in the Justice Department and put up the "Standing Up for
Law Enforcement" page. CAROL ANDERSON: Yes. And again, that is law and order. That is pure dog whistle from the Nixon years,
from the Reagan years. And what that has led to has been the mass
incarceration of African Americans and Latinos. What it has led to is the undermining of the
Civil Rights Act of ’64 and the Voting Rights Act of ’65. AMY GOODMAN: What do you say, Professor Anderson,
to those—I mean, there are those who say that Donald Trump is an outright racist, white
supremacist, white nationalist. There are others who say he’s just speaking
his mind. He tosses political correctness. What do you say? CAROL ANDERSON: I say that’s a load of hooey. And what I mean by that is, he started his
campaign by getting the groundwork with the "birtherism," which was sheer racism, demanding
to see Obama’s birth certificate. And then he launches his campaign by saying
Mexicans are rapists and criminals. Now,
what would have normally have led somebody to be distanced from that—or just say, "No,
we want no part of that"—in fact, it drew that GOP base in to a depth of fervor where
the latest polls have shown that what was driving his base was not all of this economic
anxiety that pundits talked about, but was the increasing diversity of America, the fact
that America was becoming more black and more brown. And so, his white base said, "We can’t have
that. We have got to somehow secure the power and
the resources of the United States in our hands alone." AMY GOODMAN: So, how does this—your book
came out before Donald Trump was inaugurated. CAROL ANDERSON: Yes. AMY GOODMAN: But it’s called White Rage:
The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. CAROL ANDERSON: Yes. AMY GOODMAN: How does this presidency underscore
what you have found? CAROL ANDERSON: It underscores it beautifully,
because you see all of this masking in terms of language. So, for instance, let’s take the healthcare
bill that Trump pushed forward, the one that just passed the House. When you begin to really look at it, it goes
after women, it goes after the poor, and it goes after black people. It goes after those who are getting out of
their place. But it’s doing so in this really innocuous
language of democracy, that this is going to bring about greater options and greater
choice, when in fact what it’s going to do is impoverish and sicken millions upon
millions of Americans and have a massive transfer of wealth to the top 400 families—under
the guise of democracy. That’s white rage. AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for
being with us. CAROL ANDERSON: Thank you. AMY GOODMAN: Professor Carol Anderson is chair
of the African American Studies Department at Emory University. And she is author of the book White Rage:
The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, which just won the National Book Critics Circle
Award for criticism. And that does it for our show. By the way, we have openings for a video news
fellow and many internships. Check our website, apply immediately at democracynow.org. We’re on our many-city Democracy Now! Covering the Movements Changing America tour. I’ll be speaking today at 2:00 p.m. at Carleton
College in Minnesota and at 6:30 p.m. at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Then, on Saturday, we’re on to Madison at
1:30 p.m. and in Chicago at 7:00 p.m. On Sunday, I’ll be speaking in Michigan
in three cities: in Kalamazoo at 11:00 a.m., in Lansing at 2:00 p.m. and in Grand Rapids
at 5:30 p.m. On Monday night, I’ll be speaking at the
Philadelphia Free Library at 7:30. And then, on Wednesday, May 10th, I’ll be
speaking at Seattle Town Hall in Washington. On Friday, May 12th, I’ll be speaking at
The New School in New York City. You can go to our website, check all the details,
at democracynow.org. Then we’re on to Oregon and California.
