White Fragility | Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo →

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“Robin DiAngelo is an academic, lecturer, and author and has been a consultant and trainer on racial and social justice issues for more than twenty years. She formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University.”

“The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance.”
—The New Yorker

DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility " focuses on white people’s attempts to analyze and develop what she sees as a universality of white people’s predictable patterns of viewing and discussing racism. Her conclusions apply to all white people, not just those openly racist.

“She argues that our largely segregated society is set up to insulate whites from racial discomfort so that they fall to pieces at the first application of stress—for instance, when someone suggests that “flesh-toned” may not be an appropriate name for a beige crayon.”

She concludes that white society has expectations that they are entitled to peace and deference, which leads them to respond defensively to “racial triggers” with anger, fear, guilt, “and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and withdrawal from the stress-inducing situation.”

The book opens eyes and lets. Whites see themselves differently and seem to be an analysis of only whiteness. (Of course, the subtitle tells us that) Some have found fault in the book’s approach, but that seems to miss the point. White Fragility is the point. Whites, in general, have not confronted the issues this author brings up.