White Fear: How the Browning of America Is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds

by Roland Martin, Leah Lakins

Overview

White Fear has shaped our democracy and society from the beginning—and today, it’s more intense and visible than ever. To neutralize it, we must first understand it.

For two centuries, the deep-seated fear that many White people feel—of losing power, of losing economic standing, of losing a particular “way of life”—has been the driving force behind American politics and culture.
White Fear enabled the rise of Donald Trump. It’s behind the recent flood of restrictive voting laws disproportionately impacting people of color. It’s why reactions to movements like Black Lives Matter and football players taking a knee have been so negative and so strong.

As we approach a future where White people will become a racial the minority in the US, something estimated to occur as early as 2043, that fear is only intensifying, festering, and becoming more visible. Are we destined for a violent clash? What can we do to step into our country’s inevitable future, without tearing ourselves apart in the process?

Nationally renowned journalist and award-winning author Roland Martin has been sounding this alarm for more than a decade. In White Fear, he provides a primer on how White Fear has shaped, and continues to shape, our democracy and our culture. He connects the separate puzzle pieces, from the Tea Party Movement to the decline of White American optimism to the diminishing blue-collar workforce, to illuminate the larger picture of what will unfold in America over the next decade-plus, and offers a better way forward.

If we want to create the kind of country that we’re all welcome in and proud to live in, we can no longer ignore White Fear. We must learn to recognize, understand, and dismantle it.

And as the last few years have shown, we don’t have any time to lose.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637740286
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	09/13/2022
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	94,917
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Roland S. Martin is the host and managing editor of Roland Martin Unfiltered, the first daily online show in history focused on news and analysis of politics, entertainment, sports, and culture from an African American perspective. From 2008 to 2019, he was a senior analyst for the Tom Joyner Morning Show, where his daily segment was heard on more than a hundred stations by eight million people daily. He is the author of Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith, Speak, Brother! A Black Man’s View of America, and The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Section 1 Igniting the Flame of White Fear

1 The Kindling for White Fear 9

2 Enter Donald Trump 15

3 Following Ronald Reagan's Playbook 25

Section 2 Defining the White Fear Manifesto

4 The Problem with Putting America First 41

5 Redefining American History 55

6 The Audacity of Obama 73

Section 3 Legislating and Regulating Through White Fear

7 How White Fear Terrorizes the American Judiciary 87

8 Redefining the American Voting Booth 97

Section 4 When White Fear Comes Knocking at the Door

9 The Fight to Educate Black Minds 115

10 Fighting the Blue Wall 127

Conclusion: The New American World Order 135

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Roland Martin is one of the great journalists of our time . . . This book is another grand example of his brilliance and courage!”
—Dr. Cornel West
 
“America is spinning out of control. But as most pundits struggle to understand why, Roland Martin nails it: what rests at the heart of the nation’s chaos is white fear of multiracial, pluralistic democracy . . . Thankfully, Martin shows us a way out of the mess, if the nation is prepared to listen.” 
—Tim Wise, author of White Like Me and Dispatches from the Race War
 
“It’s time to tell the truth about who our earliest citizens were, and, by so doing, give those who are descendants of those earliest citizens the information about the brilliance of those who came before us, and who will be here long after we ‘white’ folks have gone. Once we get this information into every classroom in the US, we will all stop seeing ‘race’ as real and start appreciating all of us as we are.”
—Jane Elliott, anti-racist lecturer, author, and creator of the world-renowned “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise”
 
“Fear is at the root of almost every injustice—fear of the other, fear that is created by false assumptions, or fear created by a desire for power. Roland Martin’s book addresses a particular kind of fear that has been both the backdrop and forefront of racism in this country . . . This is an important read for all people, regardless of your race and color. Understand white fear so you can release and resist it.” 
—Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, author of We Are Called to Be a Movement
 
“Roland always tells it like it is. This book is no different—GOSPEL truth. The question here for White folks is timely and is incumbent upon them to answer: what will you do with your fear and how will you respond to this clarion call?”
—Angela Rye, CEO of IMPACT Strategies and former CNN commentator
 
“Roland Martin has always been such a necessary voice to the national discourse. He beautifully occupies space at the intersection of journalism, Blackness, and truth telling, and he does so brilliantly in his new book White Fear.”
—Tiffany Cross, host of MSNBC’s Cross Connection