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

Robin DiAngelo

Feb 2019 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

The International Bestseller

'With clarity and compassion, DiAngelo allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to "bad people." In doing so, she moves our national discussions forward. This is a necessary book for all people invested in societal change' Claudia Rankine

Anger. Fear. Guilt. Denial. Silence. These are the ways in which ordinary white people react when it is pointed out to them that they have done or said something that has - unintentionally - caused racial offence or hurt. After, all, a racist is the worst thing a person can be, right? But these reactions only serve to silence people of colour, who cannot give honest feedback to 'liberal' white people lest they provoke a dangerous emotional reaction.

Robin DiAngelo coined the term 'White Fragility' in 2011 to describe this process and is here to show us how it serves to uphold the system of white supremacy. Using knowledge and insight gained over decades of running racial awareness workshops and working on this idea as a Professor of Whiteness Studies, she shows us how we can start having more honest conversations, listen to each other better and react to feedback with grace and humility. It is not enough to simply hold abstract progressive views and condemn the obvious racists on social media - change starts with us all at a practical, granular level, and it is time for all white people to take responsibility for relinquishing their own racial supremacy.

'By turns mordant and then inspirational, an argument that powerful forces and tragic histories stack the deck fully against racial justice alongside one that we need only to be clearer, try harder, and do better' David Roediger, Los Angeles Review of Books

'The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance' Katy Waldman, New Yorker

'A vital, necessary, and beautiful book' Michael Eric Dyson

Ratings and reviews

An incredibly toxic piece of work where the author tries to break the world record for being the highest possible level of woke. As you would come to expect from the woke left, the author manages to patronise black people and treat them as a pawn to visually distance herself from racism for her own moral uplifting, while actually uncovering herself to be a white supremacist and using hilariously flawed logic to try and paint every other white person in the world out to be a white supremacist. In a nutshell, the main takeaways are that if you are not anti racist, you are a racist. If you are white, you benefit from white privilege. If you dispute the positive effects of your white privilege, you are a white supremacist. Essentially it's a book that has a supposed aim of ridding the world of racism, while solely and obsessively focussing on skin colour.

The basic premise of this book is that if you were born white you were predestined to be racist because of your race and the colour of your skin. It's not your fault that you are racist, it is coded into your genetics. Therefore, just by breathing you are committing a hate crime because you are racist because of your race. You must spend the rest of your life repenting for something that you haven't done, that you will never be forgiven for. If you reject this idea, you are fragile, teehee.

Absolutely amazing, if you find it difficult to read push through and you'll find out why, made me rethink everything

About the author

Robin DiAngelo is an academic, lecturer, and author working in the fields of critical discourse analysis and whiteness studies. She is a lecturer at the University of Washington and formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University. DiAngelo has been a consultant and trainer for more than twenty years on issues of racial and social justice.