Fear of white fear forces African Americans to censor rage publicly

Evidence

White fear is clearly dangerous to black people as individuals, and that fear affects how black people behave politically and how we respond more generally to racial inequality. The fear of white fear distorts black political behavior. We have to constantly censor our rage. I can’t be “the angry black man.” I can’t call Bill O’Reilly a dumbass (at least not in public or on television). No matter the horror of the moment, our anger must be overcome and expressed reasonably out of concern of triggering white fear or making white folk uncomfortable under the weight of racial accusation. That’s why black protesters must constantly allay national fears, no matter the context, by proclaiming their commitment to nonviolence. It’s a litmus test to make sure you’re one of “the good ones.” Constantly policing what we say and how we feel, many African Americans often don the mask in public debate as our spirits wage war against the rage that threatens to consume us. We have to confront, every time we open our mouths, the possible consequences of making white people afraid. It can be exhausting. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 244

Categorization

• QUESTION: How does this ‘fear of white fear’ dynamic that Glaude names relate to existing work on racialized emotional labor or code-switching as a distinct literature?
• XREF: connects to: Black domestic workers privately express intense hostility toward white employers that public settings suppress — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as…, 193