Woke & White Wednesdays: Meet the Author of White Fragility

Hello Meltingpot Readers,

It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time to talk about woke white people, but not just any old woke white people. Today I want to shine a spotlight on Robin DiAngelo, the author of the New York Times bestseller, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Race (Beacon Press). The book just came out in June and is already being hailed as “necessary,” a “must read,” and “urgent,” and I couldn’t agree more.

Here’s why I think DiAngelo deserves some extra shine. Yes, this book is amazing in that it really breaks down complex concepts like white supremacy and racism in a way that is accessible to an average reader. And DiAngelo doesn’t just tell us how damaging these concepts are in society, she shows us with examples from the past and present. But that would just make DiAngelo a competent writer, which she obviously is. No, the reason I think this book and DiAngelo’s mission is so noteworthy is because she wrote the book for WHITE PEOPLE! It’s a book about dismantling racism and white supremacy with white Americans as the intended audience.

Marinate on that for a minute, dear readers.

Rather than putting the onus on people of color to solve the world’s most pressing problem, a problem that was in fact created by white people and is continuously perpetuated by white people, in White Fragility, DiAngelo is telling white people to basically clean up the mess they made. But she’s being nice about it. Unlike some white activists who scold and yell and end up turning many well-meaning white people off, DiAngelo is like that teacher who is loving but strict. She wants what’s best for you, even if it means giving you a lot of homework and making you stay after class for extra help. And she doesn’t excuse herself from the process either.

“Personal reflections on my own racism, a more critical view of media and other aspects of culture, and exposure to the perspectives of many brilliant and patient mentors of color all helped me to see how [the] pillars of racism worked,” DiAngelo writes in the introduction of White Fragility.

I’ve always said education is the key to progress and for that reason, White Fragility should be required reading for every white person in the United States as well as for people of color who want to understand how to better engage with white people in conversations about race and racism. It’s so easy to lead with our emotions when it comes to these issues and that’s why we’re stuck in a society that is still imprisoned by rigid racial constructs. DiAngelo thoroughly explains why racism and white supremacy are not just historical artifacts that will eventually disappear if we could all just get along. She proves with her research that these cultural parasites are actually real-life institutions supported by the wealthy and powerful (and white). If we want to make progress in dismantling this power structure, we all need to understand how it all fits together. Reading White Fragility will help us in that fight.

Thank you Robin DiAngelo for producing this important work. To find out more about DiAngelo and her continuing work in this field, please check out her website. You can also visit the Beacon Press blog where they’ve provided more links to DiAngelo’s most recent work.

Have any of you dear readers picked up White Fragility? What did you think? Leave me your thoughts below.

Peace!