How does it feel to be a problem? The missing Kerner commission report

Using an intersectional lens of race and gender, this article offers a critique of the Kerner Commission report and fills the gap of the missing analysis of white rage and of black women. A protracted history of white race riots resulted in the loss of black lives, black-owned property, and constitutional rights. However, only black riots, marked by the loss of white-owned property but few white lives, was the issue that prompted the forma tion of a national commission to investigate the events. Then and now, the privileging of white property rights over black life and liberty explains why black revolts result in presidential commissions, but white terror campaigns have never led to any comparable study.

Duke Scholars

Author Keisha Leanne Bentley-Edwards Medicine, General Internal Medicine

Author William A. Darity Jr. Sanford School of Public Policy