White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

Dr. Robin DiAngelo

Jun 2018 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Amy Landon

About this audiobook

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Ratings and reviews

Racist or should I say antiracist. Antiracist, being a racist term against people born with white skin. This belongs alongside 'mien kampf', "the international jew," or anything written by Michael Eric Dyson or Ibram X Kendi (Ibram Henry Rogers). If you want to read something of value, read Malcolm X or Martin Luther King's Autobiography or both. As they are most masterpieces. This is just a piece of garbage that is an insult to the intelligence and the memories and legacy of King and X.

Excellent reading of an excellent book. White Fragility is not only eye-opening but provides the reader with concrete tools to examine and tear down their own internalized racism and fragility. I'd recommend this book to any white person who considers themselves anti-racist and seeks to upend the racist status quo.

If the goal is to inspire behavioral change one needs to validate healthy behavior as opposed to shame people for just being born a certain color. The word "fragility" describes an emotional reaction to psychological dissonance. NO WHERE IN THE WHOLE BOOK DOES SHE EVEN TAKE ONE CHAPTER TO EXPLAIN WHAT COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IS OR HOW TO RESPOND TO IT IN A HEALTHY WAY. all she does is shame white people even those of us who have been acting in ways to disrupt the institutional racism. I am afraid this book while it does have some excellent information and is a healthy smack in the face for some very silent white folks, shaming people and only giving one very small example of an action that would be helpful, is not what we need right now. yes, we need awakening, but with compassion and with the desire to modify cognitive behavior toward a healthier system. To learn how to identify and respond to cognitive dissonance in a healthy way read, "mistakes were made but not by me" you will get so much more out of that book than this one.

About the author

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