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

I read a lot about racism (and sexism) and I still think this book provided me with something valuable. It's a different framework from which to view the problems we face and how to best conduct yourself when opposing racism. I'm still trying to process how this works with (or sometimes contradicts?) the type anti-racism espoused by Ibram X. Kendi.

CRANKY'S BOOK CLUB REVIEW OF WHITE FRAGILITY A few internet searches are enough to see that this book tends to divide opinion very starkly. Our group review is fairly unanimously positive, however, with one of us describing it as being “like an ice bath for your brain” and another remarking, “I do feel so much better for feeling worse for reading it”. We agreed that Robin DiAngelo really knew her subject and hammered her argument home highly convincingly. The central premise of White Fragility is that racism has been so inexorably tied to horrific historical images of racially-motivated atrocities that today, no-one feels comfortable with being called racist – even white supremacist groups eschew the term because they know that it loses votes. This pairing of 'racism' with 'bad' makes it impossible to accuse a white person of racism without causing massive offence to the white recipient, and leaves racism to perpetuate unchallenged. Accordingly, racism is as widespread and damaging as it ever was because white people are too 'fragile' to acknowledge their racism, whether it was intentional or not. The key to addressing racism, DiAngelo argues, is to un-pair it with 'badness', to allow white people to still feel like good people while acknowledging that they have been conditioned throughout their lives to be racist and that they benefit from a white supremacist society. White people need to toughen up and address their racist thoughts, actions and systems in order to properly tackle racism. The opening chapters of the book set out DiAngelo's argument in a rather dry and repetitive, scholarly way. We agreed that this was necessary to present it as a valid argument that would stand up to peer review, but it was difficult for the lay-reader to get past this part of the book and one of us was still working through it. We agreed that DiAngelo's real-world examples of white fragility in her diversity awareness seminars made for easier reading and really hit her point home for us and the other two thirds of the book were a compelling (if a bit of a repetitive) read. The book left us feeling evangelical about addressing white fragility and we decided that we would approach our book group as a whole to see whether anyone wanted to donate their book or buy other texts on racism for local schools. We also agreed that we wanted to educate ourselves further on the subject of racism and how to address it. We had read several negative reviews of the book prior to our meeting, so we discussed whether any of these had any merit. The author has been criticised for trying to be 'the great white saviour', in that her book is a patronising and paternalistic attempt to help people of colour. DiAngelo addresses this in the book by stating that racism is perpetrated by white people, and we as white perpetrators need to address it within ourselves in order to change society as a whole. We felt that the 'great white saviour' criticism was understandable to a point, in that, if the book was on sexism and was written by a man, the fact that the book existed might feel a little icky to us as women – but if it was well-written, would it change our minds? Would it help men to understand and address their inherent sexism? If so, that would surely lend the book credibility. We as white, liberal readers felt quite humbled and thoroughly educated by reading White Fragility. Another criticism was that DiAngelo was coining it in unfairly by writing a book on racism while being white. We thought that this was a thoroughly unfair criticism. DiAngelo researched her subject thoroughly and presents a long bibliography, urging the reader to now read more widely on the subject, to educate themselves. White Fragility is one aspect of our racist society – it doesn't address people who are happily and unashamedly racist, of which there are sadly many, and it could never provide a thorough account of how it feels to be the target of racism. DiAngelo succeeds extremely well in leaving the reader wanting to learn more and be part of the solution. Our meeting was very small tonight and we wondered what the other readers in our group thought of the book. We hope that they'll let us know. We rated the book 9/10

I went into this book extremely nervous! I'd already heard discussion around this book/author using, for her own gain, issues that society forces onto black people. I've heard that this author is trying to make a quick buck off of the struggles of black people, and people should spend their time and money on reading books on similar issues from black authors. After reading the foreword, I was even more nervous to continue on with the book... it seemed to me that the author was being set up as THE Savior for black people by using her whiteness to discuss race in situations where a black person would have had more trouble (which I get to a certain extent). However, I definitely felt that the foreword was focused WAY too much on the author herself being a savior, rather than on the beneficial methods at which she goes about discussing race with white people. Although I was incredibly nervous, I continued on with the book... and I'm glad I did. DiAngelo accomplished the goal that she set out to meet with this book. She is able to, with such ease, slip in and out of writing about the understandings of race that the majority of white people hold (and all, at some point, DID hold) and debunking those ideologies in a way that both holds the reader accountable and demands an internal change in the reader. DiAngelo also did an amazing job breaking down the harmful nature of the "White Liberal" on black people. She doesn't cherry pick which groups of white people to discuss... she discusses white people AS A WHOLE and the harmful impacts they can, and do, have on the black people in their lives. My favorite aspects of this book were her use of examples from her personal experiences. She doesn't JUST go on about the white people she encounters in her job as a speaker for racial equity in workplaces across America. She also speaks on her own experiences with falling short as an ally. She doesn't take part in blaming her misgivings on other people... she meets the accusations against her head-on, and she makes them right by educating herself, apologizing to the victim of her misstep, and making a conscious effort to never make that same mistake again. It really gives the white readers of the text a great look at how we, ourselves, should handle criticism/our own falling short in racial issues. This book did such an amazing job unpacking major concepts, but it doesn't go as deep as it could have gone. Therefore, this book was a great introductory text for understanding race and the complex relationships with race held by every person. However, it seems that you would be able to find more in-depth information, and possibly more accurate information on the black experience from own-voices authors. Specifically the own-voices authors that the author of this book mentioned within her text: Carol Anderson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram X. Kendi, etc. I have not read books by those authors, but I'm extremely excited to do so after reading excerpts from their works within this book. I already have works by Carol Anderson and Ta-Nehisi Coates on my shelves, and I look forward to getting to them soon! The reasons for which I deducted .5 stars from my rating of this book were: 1) The foreword 2) The fact that this is an introduction of sorts, and this author quoted a lot of black authors within this text (which is a good thing). However, if the information that DiAngelo was sharing could be found in a text by a black author... I believe it would be better to JUST read those other texts rather than reading her analysis of the excerpts that she included. I did really enjoy this book, and I encourage ALL white people to read it (and people of other races if they wish to do so as well). However, I encourage you further to NOT stop with this book alone. I surely will not.

I found this book extremely confrontational. I am guilty of a lot (if not most) of what the writer attempts to explain is white fragility. "I don't see colour, I see personality", "White woman's tears", "I was encouraged from an early age that racism is wrong", "All Lives Matter", and the list embarrassingly goes on... Definitely an eye-opener. As a white Australian, I acknowledge that I really do know nothing of white supremacy and American history. I have ALWAYS considered myself to be non-racist. However, after reading this book, I am very keen to learn more, attempt to understand more, and become more wiling to accept that just by being white, I am privileged in ways that I will likely never completely understand or relate to from the point of view of a person of colour. The complex history that is so very ingrained for both black and white runs so deep that I find it hard to believe that any white person on the planet has not been guilty of racism at some point in their lives, even if unaware or indirect. I think the hardest thing for most is to genuinely accept that we have all been, or are racist, even if indirectly and unconsciously. Then with this acknowledgement, we need to strive to better our understanding by owning our mistakes and flaws in our approach to racism. All the while understanding that we are always learning and growing from our lessons. I was horrified to find myself processing my own defensive or dismissive responses to some examples in this book. A very enlightening read. Unfortunately, those who would benefit from the lessons in this book the most are also those who are unlikely to ever read it.