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A review by imaginethehours
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
4.0
This is a good book for gaining understanding of those of us that are white's own defensiveness, sensitivities, assumptions, biases, stubbornness, etc, when it comes to recognizing race, our own racism, etc. It is written by a white women primarily for white people to open up our awareness and attempt to work on ourselves. I hope that I have left this book being at least a little more aware of where I fall short, and ways I can really take in truths and criticism from people of color in the future.
Excerpts from the book that stood out to me:
"People of color may also hold prejudices and discriminate against white people, but they lack the social an institutional power that transforms their prejudice and discrimination into racism; the impact of their prejudice on whites is temporary and contextual." -p.22
"This idea- that racism is not a white problem- enables us to sit back and let people of color take very real risks of invalidation and retaliation is they share their experiences. But we are not required to take similar cross-racial risks. They- not we- have race, and thus they are the holders of racial knowledge. In this way, we position ourselves as standing outside hierarchical social relations." -p.62
"We can be told, and often are told, to treat everyone the same, but we cannot successfully be taught to do so because human beings are not objective. Further, we wouldn't want to treat everyone the same because people have different needs and different relationships with us. Differential treatment in itself is not the problem." -p.79
"Equity consultant Devon Alexander shared with me what is perhaps the most pernicious form of pressure on people of color: the pressure to collude with white fragility by minimizing their racial experiences to accommodate white denial and defensiveness. In other words, they don't share their pain with us because we can't handle it. This accommodation requires a profoundly unfair degree of inauthenticity and silent endurance. In a vicious racial cycle, white fragility has functioned to keep people of color from challenging racism in order to avoid white wrath." -p.153
Excerpts from the book that stood out to me:
"People of color may also hold prejudices and discriminate against white people, but they lack the social an institutional power that transforms their prejudice and discrimination into racism; the impact of their prejudice on whites is temporary and contextual." -p.22
"This idea- that racism is not a white problem- enables us to sit back and let people of color take very real risks of invalidation and retaliation is they share their experiences. But we are not required to take similar cross-racial risks. They- not we- have race, and thus they are the holders of racial knowledge. In this way, we position ourselves as standing outside hierarchical social relations." -p.62
"We can be told, and often are told, to treat everyone the same, but we cannot successfully be taught to do so because human beings are not objective. Further, we wouldn't want to treat everyone the same because people have different needs and different relationships with us. Differential treatment in itself is not the problem." -p.79
"Equity consultant Devon Alexander shared with me what is perhaps the most pernicious form of pressure on people of color: the pressure to collude with white fragility by minimizing their racial experiences to accommodate white denial and defensiveness. In other words, they don't share their pain with us because we can't handle it. This accommodation requires a profoundly unfair degree of inauthenticity and silent endurance. In a vicious racial cycle, white fragility has functioned to keep people of color from challenging racism in order to avoid white wrath." -p.153