White Fragility Book Summary

Book Summary

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Brief Summary

Racism is not just the white supremacist in the media who is seen assaulting a black man. Instead, the roots of race-based bias are far deeper and include actions and language that masquerade as being politically correct. As history has shown, racism is wrapped up in a set of long-held assumptions that can be difficult to challenge and detect. As members of society, we must all embrace the discomfort that often comes with conversations about race. It is only through honest dialogue that change will take place on a large and permanent scale.

About the Author

Dr. Robin DiAngelo--long-time professor of social justice and best-selling anti-bias author--was born in San Francisco, California in 1956.

While Dr. DiAngelo’s first book--Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Critical Social Justice Education--was highly successful, her second book is what made her a household name.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism was published in 2018--and has been encouraging long overdue conversations about the role of race in America and the superiority of white individuals--ever since.

After graduating from the University of Washington in 2004 with her doctorate in multicultural education, Dr. DiAngelo went on to teach at Westfield State University in Massachusetts where she received tenure in 2014. Since then, Dr. DiAngelo has transitioned back to her alma mater and assumed the role of Affiliate Associate Professor of Education.

She currently speaks to groups and holds workshops regarding the veiled racism that continues to threaten society today.

Topics

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Key Insights

This is a book for white people who feel uncomfortable talking about race. It is also for people of color who wonder why it is so hard for white people to talk about race. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism examines the complex, multifaceted phenomenon of ‘white fragility’ and, in doing so, deconstructs the underlying reasons why so many individuals are afraid to speak out in the name of racial equality.

A Fundamental Contradiction

Race is not a genetic reality. While people of different races physically look different based on the color of their skin, this is actually a reflection of geography, not genetics.

As such, race is not biological--it is a social construct.

Race is a collection of ideas that teach us to see people who look a certain way as being part of a particular race. From there, we make assumptions about the societal role of these individuals, for better or for worse.

What function does race serve as a social construct?

Historically, race solves a fundamental contradiction in the United States. This country was built with the intention of creating an ideal reality. Instead, extreme inequalities developed, such as European Americans owning African Americans as slaves.

In order to justify this dichotomy, some look to the concept of race science, a pseudo-science ideology that claims African Americans are inherently lesser than European Americans. Therefore, African Americans do not require the same rights as their European counterparts.

While we now know that this flawed argument was really an excuse to enslave African Americans and used them for cheap labor, it was a commonly held belief in the early days of the United States.

Discrimination v. Racial Prejudice

When having a conversation about race, you may find that the person you are speaking with uses the words discrimination and racial prejudice interchangeably. While similar, the two terms have different meetings:

Racial Prejudice--When you are prejudiced, you are literally pre-judging someone. In the case of racial prejudice, you are pre-judging that person based on race.

Discrimination--Discrimination takes racial prejudice a step further. Now, not only are you being prejudiced against a person on account of their race, but you are also acting on these biases.

In combining these two terms, we arrive at racism. By definition, racism refers to one powerful racial group using their power and privilege against a less dominant group in a systematic way.

This is why it is factually inaccurate to say that black people are racist towards white people. The power imbalance between the two racial groups is a defining component of racism.

That said, it is still possible for a black person to discriminate against or be prejudiced towards white people, but this concept is not racism. White people create laws and act like the majority.

For instance, if a black realtor tells a white woman that she will not work with her based on her race, that is racial prejudice and discrimination. If, on the other hand, a white realtor tells a black person she will not work with her based...