Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility

 White Fragility

Robin DiAngelo  has written extensively about race and has been teaching about race and racism for over 20 years.  During that time, she observed that many people have difficulty in discussing race and racism.  In a 2011 journal article, DiAngelo explained the difficulty in discussing racism with Whites.  She called the difficulty "White fragility" and expanded on the idea that whites have difficulty in discussing race and racism in a book titled the same.

Please watch DiAngelo explain her work in the 6-minute Youtube video from NBC news and also available at The Guardian.

Her website explains her work;

White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress. Although white racial insulation is somewhat mediated by social class (with poor and working class urban whites being generally less racially insulated than suburban or rural whites), the larger social environment insulates and protects whites as a group through institutions, cultural representations, media, school textbooks, movies, advertising, and dominant discourses. Racial stress results from an interruption to what is racially familiar. In turn, whites are often at a loss for how to respond in constructive ways., as we have not had to build the cognitive or affective skills or develop the stamina that that would allow for constructive engagement across racial divides. leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium. This book explicates the dynamics of White Fragility and how we might build our capacity in the on-going work towards racial justice.

8.  How would you answer someone who asked, "Does White fragility mean that something is wrong with me because I'm white?"  

In conclusion, as we begin this unit, I want to acknowledge the difficulty of discussing race and helping you to frame it so that you can be open to learning about race going forward.  While the topic of race can be difficult and emotional, I want you to know that I am willing to help you understand and I want our classroom to be a safe space for understanding.  Trust me and trust the process, and don't be afraid to ask questions.  Be curious, not judgmental.

Some extra resources:

Watch these two humorous takes on white fragility:

And here is an SNL skit making fun of white fragility:  5 Hour Empathy Pills

From Al Jazeera, this Newsbroke sketch is a public service announcement called "White Fragility Training: Raising Racial Awareness of White Discomfort with Racial Awareness"

Here are some more resources as we begin to learn about race and about DiAngelo's work:

DiAngelo's book, What Does It Mean to Be White?  is a terrific book for anyone wanting to be more racially literate.  Racism and Specific Racial Groups, Chapter 17 of her book,  is all about the different histories and discriminations against specific racial groups.  She does a great job of succinctly explaining the social, historical and political contexts that affect each group.  While I teach much of what she explains in her book, it is a valuable resource and I recommend it.

A Sociologist Examines the “White Fragility” That Prevents White Americans from Confronting Racism from the New Yorker.

Teaching Tolerance has an interview with DiAngelo and also a 30 min video.

NBC has a brief 3 min video with DiAngelo here.

Here is an 80 min video of DiAngelo at a book talk: