White Fragility (2018)

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism is a 2018 book written by Robin DiAngelo about race relations in the United States. An academic with experience in diversity training, DiAngelo coined the term "white fragility" in 2011 to describe what she views as any defensive instincts or reactions that a white person experiences when questioned about race or made to consider their own race. In White Fragility, DiAngelo views racism in the United States as systemic and often perpetuated subconsciously by individuals. She recommends against viewing racism as committed intentionally by "bad people".

Published on June 26, 2018, by Beacon Press, the book entered the New York Times Bestseller List that month, remaining on the list for well over a year and experiencing a resurgence in demand during the George Floyd protests beginning in May 2020. As of the July 26, 2020, edition, the book was in its 97th week on the list in the Paperback Nonfiction category, where it was ranked number one. Critically, the book received generally positive reviews at the time of its publication. It received more mixed reviews in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests two years later. Some reviewers lauded the book for being thoughtful and instructive, but characterized it as diagnostic rather than solution-oriented. Other reviewers criticized the book for making false claims about race and racism in America, for putting whites in a situation where anything they say is used against them, for infantilizing black people, and for doing nothing to promote racial justice or combat systemic racism.

Background

Author Robin DiAngelo is a white American academic. She worked for 20 years in providing diversity training for businesses. Identifying as "progressive" at the time, she found her view on race changing as she began working with people of color and experienced hostility from white people when talking about race during the training. After five years in the job, she began studying for a PhD in multicultural education at the University of Washington. DiAngelo became a tenured professor at Westfield State University, working in the areas of critical discourse analysis and whiteness studies. White Fragility draws heavily on her experiences in her diversity training job. The book is aimed at a white audience.

DiAngelo coined the term "white fragility" in 2011, to describe defensive behavior by a white person when their conception of racism is questioned. White Fragility is DiAngelo's third book, following What Does It Mean to Be White?: Developing White Racial Literacy (2012). White Fragility was published on June 26, 2018, by Beacon Press. To accompany the book, Beacon Press's website offers: a Reading Guide by DiAngelo and Özlem Sensoy; a Discussion Guide for Educators by Valeria Brown; and a Discussion Guide for Unitarian Universalist Association meetings by Gail Forsyth-Vail. The book was published in early 2019 in the United Kingdom by Penguin Books.

Synopsis

The book opens with a foreword from the black American academic Michael Eric Dyson.

DiAngelo describes white fragility to be a defensive response by a white person when their whiteness is highlighted or mentioned, or their racial worldview is challenged, whether this response is conscious or otherwise. She gives examples including a white man accusing someone of "playing the race card" or a white woman crying to avoid conflict. DiAngelo proposes that white people are used to viewing themselves as "raceless" or the "default" race, and as such are insulated from feelings of racial discomfort. She describes racism as systematic rather than overt and conscious, arguing that racial segregation has shaped the United States. She points to research that has shown that children as young as four years old show a strong and consistent pro-white bias and an especially strong prejudice against black males.

DiAngelo says that people associate racism with extremists such as neo-Nazis or self-identified white supremacists, who they label as "bad people", and conclude that because they are a "good person" that they cannot be racist. She criticizes white liberals, arguing that white people who identify as "progressive" view themselves as "woke" to avoid questioning any issue of racism in themselves. She terms these reactions "aversive racism" and writes that it prevents people from addressing unconscious racist bias, which she believes everyone has. Contrastingly, she uses the term "avowed racists" to refer to those who she believes are intentionally perpetrating racism.

The author writes that "color blindness", the idea that one should not notice or think about a person's race, is unhelpful as it prevents people from understanding how race does matter in the current world. She criticizes individualism, the American Dream and the philosophical concept of objectivity. Instead, she promotes utilitarianism. The book describes the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955, a 14-year-old child who was accused of harassing a white woman. It also uses as an example Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era (1901- ). DiAngelo says that a stereotype of black men as violent and dangerous is untrue and used to justify continuing racist brutality.

Reception

Nosheen Iqbal wrote in The Guardian that "DiAngelo's book is a radical statement at a time when the debate is so polarised."

Praise

White Fragility became a New York Times bestseller for more than a year. In September 2019, Slate noted that "White Fragility has yet to leave the New York Times bestseller list since its debut in June 2018, making it the fastest-selling book in the history of Beacon Press." In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, it reached no. 1 on the New York Times list. The July 26, 2020 edition of the list marked the book's 97th week in the Paperback Nonfiction category, where it was ranked number 1.