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Dear white people, please read 'White Fragility' by Jonathan Capehart
Dear white people, please read ‘White Fragility’
by Jonathan Capehart
Now that we are engaged in yet another conversation on race, might I recommend Robin DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” But if you are white, I implore you to read it.
...
I have been wild about DiAngelo’s book since I read it last year because the associate professor of education at the University of Washington at Seattle is a white woman writing unflinchingly to white people about race. DiAngelo forces white people to see and understand how white supremacy permeates their lives and to recognize how they perpetuate it. More importantly, she shows them what they can do to change themselves and dismantle this pernicious system.
...
“I don’t know that you could have come up with a more effective way to protect the system of racism than reduce it to this very simple formula. A racist is an individual who consciously doesn’t like people based on race. Apparently, it has to be conscious or it doesn’t count,” explained DiAngelo, who noted that the formula also requires that the hurt caused be intentional or it doesn’t count. “That definition not only exempts virtually all white people from the system we’re in, but I think it’s the root of virtually all white defensiveness. Because if that’s what I think it means to be racist and you suggest I’ve just said or done something racist ... I’m going to hear you saying that I am a bad person. That’s going to land as a question of my very moral character.
...
DiAngelo told me that she doesn’t say everyone is racist. She says everyone is biased, which is true. But not all biases are equal. “When you back my group’s bias with that kind of power, it’s just so profoundly different in its impact,” said DiAngelo, who pointed out that anti-blackness is a major factor. “The closer you are to blackness, the more profound will be the oppression. This is a system, and your smiling doesn’t interrupt it. Your niceness doesn’t interrupt it. You going to lunch on occasion with a co-worker of color doesn’t interrupt this system. The only thing that interrupts it is strategic, intentional action.”
More -> https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/05/dear-white-people-please-read-white-fragility/
by Jonathan Capehart
Now that we are engaged in yet another conversation on race, might I recommend Robin DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” But if you are white, I implore you to read it.
...
I have been wild about DiAngelo’s book since I read it last year because the associate professor of education at the University of Washington at Seattle is a white woman writing unflinchingly to white people about race. DiAngelo forces white people to see and understand how white supremacy permeates their lives and to recognize how they perpetuate it. More importantly, she shows them what they can do to change themselves and dismantle this pernicious system.
...
“I don’t know that you could have come up with a more effective way to protect the system of racism than reduce it to this very simple formula. A racist is an individual who consciously doesn’t like people based on race. Apparently, it has to be conscious or it doesn’t count,” explained DiAngelo, who noted that the formula also requires that the hurt caused be intentional or it doesn’t count. “That definition not only exempts virtually all white people from the system we’re in, but I think it’s the root of virtually all white defensiveness. Because if that’s what I think it means to be racist and you suggest I’ve just said or done something racist ... I’m going to hear you saying that I am a bad person. That’s going to land as a question of my very moral character.
...
DiAngelo told me that she doesn’t say everyone is racist. She says everyone is biased, which is true. But not all biases are equal. “When you back my group’s bias with that kind of power, it’s just so profoundly different in its impact,” said DiAngelo, who pointed out that anti-blackness is a major factor. “The closer you are to blackness, the more profound will be the oppression. This is a system, and your smiling doesn’t interrupt it. Your niceness doesn’t interrupt it. You going to lunch on occasion with a co-worker of color doesn’t interrupt this system. The only thing that interrupts it is strategic, intentional action.”
More -> https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/05/dear-white-people-please-read-white-fragility/
Dr. Robin DiAngelo discussing her book (runs about 1 hr & 20mins):
7 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
At Amazon and Powells. Not sure what the initial print-run was but it looks like they will have to run another printing/edition. Maybe with a new forward?
The wait for it digitally from my library is 11 months! Longest i've ever seen...
