White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

by Robin DiAngelo

Michael Eric Dyson (Foreword)

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.

• ISBN10: 0807047414
• ISBN13: 9780807047415
• Publish Date: 26 June 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Beacon Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 192
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780807047415

Reviews

[manonblackbeak]

As a Latina who doesn't live in the U.S. this was interesting, but the book is quite repetitive

[nsperry92]

READ. THIS. BOOK. This is exactly what I was looking for to learn more about myself and how I bring racisim to the table.
I highlighted just about every page. I only wish I had picked it up sooner.
I now feel that much more encouraged to learn about and speak against racism.

[Kevin Costain]

The defining of racism here is useful and fundamental; it does seem we throw around the words a lot. DiAngelo explains that prejudice is a pre-judgement of someone based on little or not information but, say a person’s skin. Discrimination then is that action that comes from prejudice. The action might be very subtle like talking badly about a person or group, all the way to violence. I imagine this sort of thing in media; the news anchor speaks in a disgusted tone when talking about African-American choices. When the group’s prejudice is backed by power and legal authority, then we have racism.

This useful way of looking at racism allows us to understand why some black people do well in America despite racism (they can swim against this tide). It also explains why black people can hold prejudice against those considered white but cannot be racist (they do not posses the system’s authority to do so). For example, and I have seen this point of view from white-Americans first-hand: “The racial ideology that circulates in the United States rationalizes racial hierarchies as the outcome of a natural order resulting from either genetics or individual effort or talent.”

This is the kicker - and I agree: “The dimensions of racism benefiting white people are usually invisible to whites.”

As a secondary effect, this book should help you suss out the way media outlets that tend to lean right enable racism. It’s a bold claim, yes, but it’s there in media if you look. If you see the media they’ll say that “white fragility” is all-or-nothing and that seeing society as favoring whites is “like saying people are racist” - of of course, on some reflection these media types are removing nuance and creating binary division. This is probably the best way they can think of to maintain the status quo.

And this is the big, uncomfortable “elephant in the room” that White Fragility does well at showing. You may not agree with all of it, but should be read - hopefully lead to introspection and change.

[kiracanread]

I enjoyed this book, it really showed a lot of misunderstandings that white people have concerning racism and equality, I read this for the black out buddy read hosted by bookswithshae on youtube and I must say, this book wasn't as valuable of a read to me as White Rage and I'd recommend that over this one.