he terrifying prospect of internal strife, armed suppression, and needless destruction descend fully upon us all (410). The writing remains on the wall. As Young implies, white America must deal with the black rage existing within its borders or face inevitable destruction.One contemporary example of black rage escalating to the point of violence is the breakout of riots in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict in 1992. Ellis Cose explains that a group from the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Policy was conducting research on black rage in society when the riots occurred. Sentiments of rage were not only recorded following the riots, but also before. Cose writes,The entire country, after all, seemed in a state of shock over the verdict in Simi Valley. But that does not account for the sentiments registered before the verdict, when so many blacks who were doing well seemed to be so very unhappy. So many seemed in a state of raging discontent. And much of America, I am sure, has not a ghost of a notion why. (6-8)A ghost. Black rage has not subsided; it has not been satisfied; it has been ever present to haunt the very existence of America. It waits to strike out, for the reason to mobilize, for an excuse to act. West concludes, As a people . . . we are on a slippery slope toward economic strife, social turmoil, and cultural chaos . . . enforced racial hierarchy dooms us as a nation to collective paranoia and hysteria -- the unmaking of any democratic order (8).It took over two hundred years to abolish slavery, and one hundred years from the Emancipation Proclamation to begin to ensure civil rights. In another fifty years, when equality has not been realized in 2020, how will America then deal with her Negro problem? And what will become of the rage? Young prophesies, But I have confidence that black people will muster the courage and the strength to make one last effort, based on our common sufferings, to stand ...
