White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
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Readers say *White Fragility* provides a helpful introduction to why many white people struggle to discuss racism, emphasizing systemic and often unco...
Finished listening to this book. It is hard for White people to talk about racism. This book will help the willing reader discern why that is. I also feel that if the White reader is open to it, it will help him or her realize how to try to stop being a supporter of a racist society. Well, as a White person, I think that the awareness issue is most important because so often White people fail to acknowledge racism and perpetuate racist structures without even thinking about it.
For me this is not so much as a how to not be racist, but about how to be open to learning and trying always to overcome personal and institutional racism. It's work for a lifetime.
Parting thought, racism is not a Black problem, it is a problem White people impose upon Black people and pother people of color.
For me this is not so much as a how to not be racist, but about how to be open to learning and trying always to overcome personal and institutional racism. It's work for a lifetime.
Parting thought, racism is not a Black problem, it is a problem White people impose upon Black people and pother people of color.
This is a tremendously wonderful book to begin your quest for "anti-racism" - but it's only the start.
I read this, most recently, after reading [b:Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot|36687229|Hood Feminism Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot|Mikki Kendall|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1577489813l/36687229._SY75_.jpg|58481445] and I feel like that book did more to challenge my hidden biases than this one did. As many other reviewers have mentioned, DiAngelo did little more than present the fact that whites have a stockpile of tried and true defenses when the topic of racism is breached. Which is obviously true. However, I wish she would have expanded the conversation more. I'm not satisfied with "see you in the next 400 years when hopefully racism in America is past us!" She seemed stuck on the over-reactions white professions have when "blamed" for being racist. There's no mention of the thousands of contemporary examples of upper-middle-class whites calling the cops on their black neighbors for... *existing.* There's no mention of how deeply and aggressively White biases affect men, women, and children in their daily lives. There are absolutely no solutions - which is very unsatisfactory, but also, given the author's background in academia, not totally surprising.
I'm not totally sure if the fact that this book being written by a white woman for whites is actually helpful. Yes, every time I read a book on racism I've sought out authors who aren't white, and I've benefitted better for it. But because the premise is a bit more of a spin on how White People deal with racism, I thought maybe for once this will be ok if I heard it from a source. No. All that's really happened in this book is that a white woman is saying exactly what generations of blacks have said repeatedly, but in a more Academic and Centered tone.
I read this, most recently, after reading [b:Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot|36687229|Hood Feminism Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot|Mikki Kendall|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1577489813l/36687229._SY75_.jpg|58481445] and I feel like that book did more to challenge my hidden biases than this one did. As many other reviewers have mentioned, DiAngelo did little more than present the fact that whites have a stockpile of tried and true defenses when the topic of racism is breached. Which is obviously true. However, I wish she would have expanded the conversation more. I'm not satisfied with "see you in the next 400 years when hopefully racism in America is past us!" She seemed stuck on the over-reactions white professions have when "blamed" for being racist. There's no mention of the thousands of contemporary examples of upper-middle-class whites calling the cops on their black neighbors for... *existing.* There's no mention of how deeply and aggressively White biases affect men, women, and children in their daily lives. There are absolutely no solutions - which is very unsatisfactory, but also, given the author's background in academia, not totally surprising.
I'm not totally sure if the fact that this book being written by a white woman for whites is actually helpful. Yes, every time I read a book on racism I've sought out authors who aren't white, and I've benefitted better for it. But because the premise is a bit more of a spin on how White People deal with racism, I thought maybe for once this will be ok if I heard it from a source. No. All that's really happened in this book is that a white woman is saying exactly what generations of blacks have said repeatedly, but in a more Academic and Centered tone.
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