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A review by clacksee
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
5.0
A book about racism written by a White person… I was sceptical.
So ideas about it before deciding whether to read it. And the thing I read in the reviews that persuaded ultimately ended up being the key message of the book: the work of deconstructing racism building a better world CAN’T BE DONE SOLELY BY BLACK PEOPLE. Nor should it be. White people caused racism; it’s our mess to clean up.
Because we were socialised into racist culture. We need to do the work to unlearn that.
Now, one thing that I intensely disliked about this book was the author’s use of racial slurs. Don’t get me wrong; she’s not wielding slurs against people. She’s quoting other people and referencing how White people sometimes use words as weapons. And I need to think about whether her use of those words angers me because they’re not her words to use or because, in using them, she’s calling attention to the problem they represent. I’d like to think it’s the former. But I need to think about that.
Because I’ve still got a lot of racism to unlearn.
So ideas about it before deciding whether to read it. And the thing I read in the reviews that persuaded ultimately ended up being the key message of the book: the work of deconstructing racism building a better world CAN’T BE DONE SOLELY BY BLACK PEOPLE. Nor should it be. White people caused racism; it’s our mess to clean up.
Because we were socialised into racist culture. We need to do the work to unlearn that.
Now, one thing that I intensely disliked about this book was the author’s use of racial slurs. Don’t get me wrong; she’s not wielding slurs against people. She’s quoting other people and referencing how White people sometimes use words as weapons. And I need to think about whether her use of those words angers me because they’re not her words to use or because, in using them, she’s calling attention to the problem they represent. I’d like to think it’s the former. But I need to think about that.
Because I’ve still got a lot of racism to unlearn.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, and Colonisation