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laura_corsi's review against another edition
2.0
Robin DiAngelo is a white woman who works for a diversity training firm that people and organizations can hire to come in and help them be more aware of how racism manifests in their workplace. Therefore, she is uniquely positioned as a white person to understand how all white people unconsciously perpetuate racism as a result of our socialization in a racist society. This concept of "white fragility" is what the recent book by Reni Eddo-Lodge is touching on as well. White people think that they are not being racist but when we are called on something that we do that is racist we react with anger, denial, and defensiveness. What DiAngelo points out is that all white people are racist even herself because we are participating in a racist society and that society positions white people as having more privilege than their minority peers. White people, therefore, are by default racist. (DiAngelo draws a distinction between Racism with a capital R and prejudice which can exist toward any person white, black, or in between. Racism however DiAngelo argues can only be perpetuated by whites toward minorities because of our position in society.)
This is a harrowing book for a white person but it goes down a little easier because it is written by a white person which helps with the defensiveness we may feel on being called out on our racism. It is written a little bit like a presentation, which makes sense given DiAngelo's background, but it made it a little less enjoyable to read because of that which is why I only gave it 3 stars. However, I do highly recommend this book to anyone who doesn't understand what all that talk about white privilege is all about.
I would say this is a good primer to ease white people into this topic before reading Eddo-Lodge or Ta-Nehisi Coates.
This is a harrowing book for a white person but it goes down a little easier because it is written by a white person which helps with the defensiveness we may feel on being called out on our racism. It is written a little bit like a presentation, which makes sense given DiAngelo's background, but it made it a little less enjoyable to read because of that which is why I only gave it 3 stars. However, I do highly recommend this book to anyone who doesn't understand what all that talk about white privilege is all about.
I would say this is a good primer to ease white people into this topic before reading Eddo-Lodge or Ta-Nehisi Coates.
lisamchuk's review
3.0
This is a book about racism, written by a white author for white readers (which is discussed in the author's note). There is a lot of self-learning and reflection that can occur while reading this, but I recommend supplimenting this discussion by also reading Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad if you want to continue to take steps towards understanding your own white fragility on your journey to becoming anti-racist.
bookph1le's review against another edition
5.0
Short as this book is, it's not an easy read--and it shouldn't be one. One thing I wish Americans--and white Americans in particular--would learn to internalize is that discomfort can be good, because discomfort can be the impetus for growth. I find it especially ironic that the same people who sneer about "special snowflakes" are the ones that must be coddled like toddlers because they can't handle discomfort. I'm not saying I *like* being uncomfortable, and I certainly wouldn't believe anyone who said they do, but what I've learned is to take that discomfort for the signal it is and try my best to look for the source rather than instantly soothing the discomfort away. I'm white, and I will unequivocally say that white people need to feel more discomfort because white people have a lot of work to do.
As part of my attempt to educate myself, this is just one of the books about race I've been reading over the last few years. I've gained invaluable insight and knowledge from reading books like [b:White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide|26073085|White Rage The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide|Carol Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456093492l/26073085._SY75_.jpg|46010383] and [b:How to Be an Antiracist|40265832|How to Be an Antiracist|Ibram X. Kendi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560163756l/40265832._SY75_.jpg|62549152], because these books deconstruct the myth of America and expose the racism embedded in every inch of this country's political and social structures, and knowing that those biases are baked into the fabric of our country makes it a lot harder to deny racism's existence. [b:The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy|35020353|The Poisoned City Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy|Anna Clark|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499187148l/35020353._SY75_.jpg|56304981], although it's about the Flint water crisis, was also illuminating because it laid bare the conditions that led to racial segregation in that city. Hopefully by now most Americans are aware of the effects of that segregation, and of the disproportionate toll of Flint's leaded water on people of color.
What I liked about White Fragility in particular is that it makes an excellent companion book to the three I mentioned above (and many I haven't mentioned). I think it's crucial that white people educate themselves about structural racism--and note that I say educate themselves. A couple of the books I mentioned were written by people of color, but white people need to learn it is not the job of people of color to instruct us on the ills of racism, since even though younger generations may not be the ones who designed the system, we certainly benefit from it and help prop it up in ways both invisible and visible. White Fragility helps break down why it is our job to examine our own racist impulses and to take ourselves to task and charge ourselves with learning how to recognize and overcome them. I especially appreciated that DiAngelo makes it clear that this is a lifelong process and one we will need to do our best to be cognizant of at all times, since learning to do better takes a lot of work because it involves overcoming our programming.
This book has a lot of practical suggestions and some easy to understand, no-nonsense checklists. It insists that white people not be allowed to cut corners, that we must own up to our impulses and learn to check them, that the onus is on us and not on people of color to correct them. It doesn't allow for the excuses and hand-waving that occur far too often in our culture, excuses and hand-waving that allow white people to ignore racism so that we can continue to benefit from it. Like How to Be and Antiracist, this book insists that we must be active participants in dismantling racism.
This is a great primer, but I also highly recommend that white people further their understanding of the racist structures upholding our society by reading other books to supplement their knowledge, such as the others I mentioned in this review.
As part of my attempt to educate myself, this is just one of the books about race I've been reading over the last few years. I've gained invaluable insight and knowledge from reading books like [b:White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide|26073085|White Rage The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide|Carol Anderson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456093492l/26073085._SY75_.jpg|46010383] and [b:How to Be an Antiracist|40265832|How to Be an Antiracist|Ibram X. Kendi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560163756l/40265832._SY75_.jpg|62549152], because these books deconstruct the myth of America and expose the racism embedded in every inch of this country's political and social structures, and knowing that those biases are baked into the fabric of our country makes it a lot harder to deny racism's existence. [b:The Poisoned City: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy|35020353|The Poisoned City Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy|Anna Clark|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499187148l/35020353._SY75_.jpg|56304981], although it's about the Flint water crisis, was also illuminating because it laid bare the conditions that led to racial segregation in that city. Hopefully by now most Americans are aware of the effects of that segregation, and of the disproportionate toll of Flint's leaded water on people of color.
What I liked about White Fragility in particular is that it makes an excellent companion book to the three I mentioned above (and many I haven't mentioned). I think it's crucial that white people educate themselves about structural racism--and note that I say educate themselves. A couple of the books I mentioned were written by people of color, but white people need to learn it is not the job of people of color to instruct us on the ills of racism, since even though younger generations may not be the ones who designed the system, we certainly benefit from it and help prop it up in ways both invisible and visible. White Fragility helps break down why it is our job to examine our own racist impulses and to take ourselves to task and charge ourselves with learning how to recognize and overcome them. I especially appreciated that DiAngelo makes it clear that this is a lifelong process and one we will need to do our best to be cognizant of at all times, since learning to do better takes a lot of work because it involves overcoming our programming.
This book has a lot of practical suggestions and some easy to understand, no-nonsense checklists. It insists that white people not be allowed to cut corners, that we must own up to our impulses and learn to check them, that the onus is on us and not on people of color to correct them. It doesn't allow for the excuses and hand-waving that occur far too often in our culture, excuses and hand-waving that allow white people to ignore racism so that we can continue to benefit from it. Like How to Be and Antiracist, this book insists that we must be active participants in dismantling racism.
This is a great primer, but I also highly recommend that white people further their understanding of the racist structures upholding our society by reading other books to supplement their knowledge, such as the others I mentioned in this review.
jrmarr's review
5.0
I've put off writing my review for this book because I wasn't really sure what to say. Given it's situated in the US context, I was often led to wonder what relevance it had to the Australian urban experience. And I came to realise that I will probably never know or deeply understand that relevance; that the best I can do is recognise that my own bias will sometimes get in my way; that I will flounder, and feel awkward and embarrassed, and want to defend myself, when what I most need to understand is that my discomfort is but a fraction of the pain and intergenerational trauma experienced by others. I was particularly struck by the chapter on 'White Women's tears'. This book is challenging, thought provoking and important. I only hope that more people who need to hear the message will read it.
rachellarson2019's review
3.0
DNF
As a white person giving this book a negative review, I feel....racist.
This book is extremely repetitive and at just over half way through, I decided to shelve it. I think the author is trying to speak to systemic racism in the United States and why white people have such a knee jerk, self-protective reaction when they are talked to about racism. She defines racism not as acts that people commit, but rather the systemic racism that pervades our society and the water that we all swim in. Her solution appears to be to get every white person to verbally cop to being a racist even if they have not committed acts of prejudice against other people or adhere to white nationalist rhetoric and beliefs. I agree with her that systemic racism exists, that whites benefit from being white in our country, that we all have implicit bias within us, and that we should humbly listen to and believe POC when they talk about their experience living in the world. But her approach is to redefine accepted definitions of words and everything felt like a circular argument.
I felt very defeated listening to this book because it really felt like I was being beat over the head with "admit your racist!" while at the same time not being offered any way forward and a lot of contradictory advice.
There is a book review by mark that I read on goodreads and will quote here, but please go read the whole review as he is a POC, a diversity trainer, and goes through different quotes in the book that are helpful and that are problematic.
"...this book offers no way forward. it simply and repeatedly instructs its white readers on why they are racist and will always be racist. To "learn" this lesson is to parrot back what the author has told them... Dialogue and emotional responses from trainees are not just disdained, they are seen as pervasive symptoms of racism. A person can read this polemic and gain an understanding of white culpability today and throughout history. But it provides no impetus to move forward, to create actual change."
As a white person giving this book a negative review, I feel....racist.
This book is extremely repetitive and at just over half way through, I decided to shelve it. I think the author is trying to speak to systemic racism in the United States and why white people have such a knee jerk, self-protective reaction when they are talked to about racism. She defines racism not as acts that people commit, but rather the systemic racism that pervades our society and the water that we all swim in. Her solution appears to be to get every white person to verbally cop to being a racist even if they have not committed acts of prejudice against other people or adhere to white nationalist rhetoric and beliefs. I agree with her that systemic racism exists, that whites benefit from being white in our country, that we all have implicit bias within us, and that we should humbly listen to and believe POC when they talk about their experience living in the world. But her approach is to redefine accepted definitions of words and everything felt like a circular argument.
I felt very defeated listening to this book because it really felt like I was being beat over the head with "admit your racist!" while at the same time not being offered any way forward and a lot of contradictory advice.
There is a book review by mark that I read on goodreads and will quote here, but please go read the whole review as he is a POC, a diversity trainer, and goes through different quotes in the book that are helpful and that are problematic.
"...this book offers no way forward. it simply and repeatedly instructs its white readers on why they are racist and will always be racist. To "learn" this lesson is to parrot back what the author has told them... Dialogue and emotional responses from trainees are not just disdained, they are seen as pervasive symptoms of racism. A person can read this polemic and gain an understanding of white culpability today and throughout history. But it provides no impetus to move forward, to create actual change."