White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism

"Robin DiAngelo wants white people to understand why it’s so hard for them to talk about racism – and to understand why it’s so vital to overcome that discomfort. In White Fragility, the sociologist and antiracism educator meticulously maps out how the interplay of core Western ideas such as individualism, meritocracy and objectivity worked to create, propagate and protect white supremacy, and insulate white people from the realities of – and their role in – racism. I came to White Fragility from a place of deep frustration, anger and grief. DiAngelo’s straightforward prose, built on decades of thinking and lecturing about racism, provided powerful inspiration: “[G]rief must lead to sustained and transformative action.” White Fragility is an important launching pad, at once an explication of white people’s complicity in racist systems and an exhortation to do the hard but necessary work of breaking down those systems."