White Fragility

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

electronic resource, 192 pages

English language

Published Dec. 25, 2018 by Beacon Press.

OCLC Number:
1088664994

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (11 reviews)

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. source: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566247/white-fragility-by-robin-diangelo/

3 editions

Review of "White Fragility: Why It's so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It's very good. I was defending myself and individualism in my own mind as I started reading it, and had all those defenses challenged by the time I'd finished, which felt like a valuable lesson in itself, if somewhat unmooring.

A couple times, I thought I'd accidentally flipped back a page or two, and was reading something for the second time but it was just the same story or point being re-written, so the editing could have been a little tighter for my tastes.