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 … 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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Especially good for any white person who believes you don’t hate people of other races so you’re not racist, thinks good and well-meaning people can’t be racist, thinks talking about race and problems in our society is just focusing on negativity, defines racists as people who hate and mistreat people because of their race, thinks talking about race is political and divisive, chooses to avoid talking about race and politics, thinks you’re not responsible for racism because you’re a good and nice person who isn’t racist, or says you don’t see color and believe in equality and are therefore not a racist. Read this to redefine what race and racism are so you can actually participate in making the world the nice place you genuinely wish it to be.
An excellent book that demonstrates the ways in which white fragility manifest and present and how we can overcome them to be better allies to our brothers and sisters of color. This book educated me on things I didn’t already know, while also challenging me to look deeper within myself for the ways in which I might be complicit and how I can do better in the future. I’m convinced that if enough people put what this book teaches into action, we can make the world a more equitable place for everyone. Highly recommend to all my fellow white people who have a genuine desire to learn how to overcome their own fragility to become a better anti-racist.
Sometimes while you’re reading a book you may think to yourself, “This is important. I’m glad I’m reading this.” I felt that way about _White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism_. After a series of horrifying and brutal acts of violence and racist attacks on Black Americans, white Americans are finally sitting up and paying more attention to what they’ve been hearing for years: Racism is systemic. We’re all part of that system. We all need to do better.
Just within the past week I’ve seen another internet meltdown within one of my groups over “what aboutism” and why saying “I don’t see color” and “All lives matter” is part of the problem.
This may be one of those important books that won’t be read by the people who need to read it the most, but I’m glad I read it and I highly recommend it.
This is a book that SHOULD make you uncomfortable. For some readers, immediately defenses go up (“…but not ME” and other explanations…) and I’m no different. Read this, though, and let it percolate. Read the portions that make you cringe again. It’s picking at, and sometimes ripping off a scab, but only then (perhaps) can real healing begin. It’s not a book I particularly liked. But it’s a subject matter I needed to digest. And hopefully, understand my world better, and make changes the best way I can.
A powerful, thought-provoking and deeply meaningful book that raises startling points about how white people have specific, sometimes unconscious, biases towards race while thinking we are colorblind.
An eye-opening, must read book for anyone with European ancestry and the desire to learn more about our racial biases and our role in it.
In the forward to DiAngelo’s masterful treatise, Michael Eric Dyson says, “But whiteness goes one better: it is a category of identity that is most useful when its very existence is denied. That’s its twisted genius. Whiteness embodies Charles Baudelaire’s admonition that ‘the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.’”
Sociologist DiAngelo proceeds to deconstruct everything we think we know about racism. She explains that racism is unavoidable and inevitable in our society, that its patterns are socialized into us from the earliest age. “White people in North America live in a society that is deeply separate and unequal by race, and white people are the beneficiaries of that separation and inequality.”
She contends that the people who do the most damage in relationships with people of color are white progressives, who assert things like, “I’m color blind. My mother taught me to treat everyone equally. Some of my best friends are black.” We become exceedingly uncomfortable and take great offense at the merest suggestion that we have said or done something racist. There the conversation stops. In DiAngelo’s words, we have no “racial stamina” to continue. And we become complicit with the very system we say we oppose.
“Socialized into a deeply internalized sense of superiority that we either are unaware of or can never admit to ourselves, we become highly fragile in conversations about race. We consider a challenge to our racial worldviews as a challenge to our very identities as good, moral people.”
The author explores how race shapes the lives of white people today, often in ways that are completely unconscious. In so doing, she shines a much-needed light on the protests happening in countries world over, enabling us to begin to understand our troubled history. If you have asked yourself, as have I, “What needs to happen next? Where should I go from here?” DiAngelo gives us a place to start.
But make no mistake. White Fragility is a difficult book to read, not because of its lucid analysis of the most troubling events of our time, but because it makes us look in the mirror. The racist isn’t only the white policeman with his knee on the neck of a black man.
The racist is me.
I read this book as part of a discussion group. The first half is definitely worthwhile; the second half regurgitates the first. Material is original and thought-provoking. It forces you to examine your own perceptions, biases, and actions. Some of the “academic” material is narrative based on observation without data or a measurable body of evidence, some of the conclusions based on limited historical examples. The book leaves you with nowhere to go and no plan of action to address the problems exposed. By the end I was left feeling like I had attended her workshop with no follow-up homework assignment
I am not white so I really did not relate to this book. I have to agree some things
written had some merit, but not sure I would consider this a great read for me.
Necessary read
It’s definitely valuable to read this book since it is so relevant to society today and people are talking about this specific book, and I think the more perspectives you read about racism, the better. However, with that said, this is not my favorite book about racism. First, I think the book was twice as long as it could have been, with lots or repetition. Second, the book read as a textbook, meaning a little on the dry side. It was really focused on Robin DiAngelo’s experience in her diversity training classes, and there were no examples (that I recall) from her regular life. I got a lot more out of books like Waking up White where there were many specific examples of the author that were more relatable to me and thus elicited an emotional response.How to Talk about Race had a lot of specific changes to make in your own conversations. White Fragility on the hand other was very broad and general, more of an academic read by a professor. So overall, a good book to read to expand your knowledge, but not a real page turner. I do appreciate the list of Resources in the back to continue my education about racism.
White Fragility is an absolute must-read for all those in white spaces. DiAngelo humbly yet straightforwardly exposes the individual and systemic failures of whiteness that have to be addressed and eradicated. This book felt like consuming an entire class in just a day or two and continually challenged me to see the difficult realities in my own workplace, church, community, and family. Pick this up and don’t put it down. Working on my own white fragility and normalizing talking about it, so let me know what you think!
As a youth I believed racism would eventually disappear with each new generation. That never happened and I wondered why. This book answered many questions for me. A must read for anyone interested in mending the racial divide today.
This book made me challenge long held beliefs and things I thought I understood but didn’t even come close to getting right. This book made me reflect on my behavior and what I’m willing and able to do to change in the future.
“It is my responsibility to resist defensiveness and complacency.” “I have some work to do.” “Bias is implicit and unconscious and I don’t expect to be aware of mine without a lot of ongoing effort.” These few statements are just some of my biggest takeaways of this book. The antidote to guilt is action and I will do what I can to take action to transform.
5 stars. This is a profoundly important read. It gives the reader a much deeper understanding of racism, white privilege, oppression, white guilt, etc. The list goes on and on. I highly recommend picking up this short but potent read.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo is a brilliant starting point for anyone looking to get a clearer understanding of the ways in which racism has adapted to survive and thrive in a post-civil rights world. DiAngelo breaks down the ways in which white fragility allows white supremacy to continue through means such as the fallacy that if you’re a ‘good person’ you cannot possibly be racist, the belief that humans are capable of objectivity or refraining from judgement, the presumption of white racial innocence and the denial of a white racial identity. DiAngelo also provides a helpful model for how white people can do better – by accepting that because we have all been ‘swimming in the same water’ of a racist society that it is impossible for us to have not have picked up racist behaviours and habits. We should therefore treat feedback on our behaviour from others as the gift that it is and use it as an opportunity to challenge ourselves and do better.
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A must read today’s world.
After I finished this I went on Amazon to purchase this book for a friend and I started looking through some of the reviews. There were quite a few 1-star ratings – all of them coming across as very defensive to me. I understand where those reviewers are coming from, I probably would have been right there with them had I read this a few years ago. So I think it’s important to note that you should read this book with an open heart and mind – come from a place of wanting to educate yourself and be a better human.
“I repeat: stopping our racist patterns must be more important than working to convince others that we don’t have them.”
I realize the title of this book may be unappealing. I myself put off reading this book because the title itself made me feel uncomfortable but that is the theme of this book. Talking about race does make me uncomfortable and I now realize why that is a problem. How can I expect to help something if I am not willing to educate myself or even discuss it with others? Yes, this book was challenging to read but only because I realize I have said things or engaged in behaviors that the author is addressing. This book had me examining my entire existence. I read this before going to bed one night and was not able to sleep because I was going over all of the horrible and hateful things I have said or done to people in the black community. Honestly, reading this book was like a slap in the face for me and I mean this in the best way possible. A wake-up call. It was thought-provoking, insightful, and I think every white person should read it.
A must read for ALL white people. I will reread to check myself and my privilege as I move forward.
As part of an exercise in being a better human, 66 other people and I started the new year reading DiAngelo’s book. Her descriptions of being white in America and her explanations of systemic racism are so clear that I was unhappy I hadn’t seen these issues (and how they play a part in my life and the lives around me) before.
Read this slowly. Read it in paperback and mark the heck out of the pages. Read it with others. I come away knowing that I can’t change the world, but I can make my corner of it a safe, warm, welcoming place.