The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America

by Carol Anderson

President Woodrow Wilson, an arch-segregationist, knew that trouble was brewing. “Black American soldiers were being treated as equals by the French,

It was “no easy walk,” but nonviolence created the space for enough whites to see the brutality and consequences of Jim Crow.

The nation’s propensity to define racism as Southern-only made the Panthers’ demands in California illegible, if not incomprehensible, to the larger society.

Third, the target of the Panthers was not the Klan but the police. Although the KKK had become repugnant to the larger society, the police were respected—revered, even.

It’s all about law and order and the damn Negro–Puerto Rican groups out there.”

With stand-your-ground laws, the castle doctrine expanded beyond the home and emphasized that there is no requirement to retreat, no responsibility to leave the danger before engaging the perceived

“As a recent study of police officers indicated, ‘Black boys are seen as older and less innocent and that they prompt a less essential conception of childhood than do their White same-age peers.’

“At its heart, open carry is about open season on the people who scare you.

“lack of ability to imagine a black person as a hero”—as a good guy with a gun.