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.
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* offers a powerful introduction to why many white people struggle discussing racism, emphasizing that racism is systemic ...
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.
Written well however I do feel that it is missing some very key points and feels very on sided still. Worth read but there are many better books on this subject.
If you're white, particularly if you bristle at being called white, please read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. Especially if you're progressive, marched in the 60s, or think you are pretty woke toward racism and see yourself as not racist, please read this book. Racism permeates everything and we white people are trained from birth to ignore and deny its existence. There's so much more I personally could be doing about this, and this book gave me the language to understand how.
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