Most urban white Americans read Black uprisings as dangerous pathology, not protest

Evidence

Many white people in America, in fact, saw the Panthers and the uprisings in Watts, Detroit, and Newark not as protests against police violence but as indications of dangerous Black pathology. A white woman in Joliet, Illinois, remarked, “When I see on TV these demonstrations it makes me think of them as savages.” Indeed, 57 percent of white people who lived in large urban areas said that the riots made them feel “unsafe.” A woman in New Jersey explained, “People have become afraid of Negroes. When you see them in groups you think they’re going to start a riot.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 818

Categorization

• CANDY: The 57 percent white-unsafe figure and the “savages” quote are quick, memorable data points for conversations about racialized perception of protest.