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

Book by Robin DiAngelo · 9 quotes · White Fragility, Racism, Race And Racism In America

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

“Habitus maintains our social comfort and helps us regain it when those around us do not act in familiar and acceptable ways. .... Thus, white fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress in the habitus becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. .... These behaviors, in turn, reinstate white racial equilibrium.”

White Fragility Habitus

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

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

“These ceremonials in honor of white supremacy, performed from babyhood, slip from the conscious mind down deep into muscles . . . and become difficult to tear out. — LILLIAN SMITH , Killers of the Dream (1949)”

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

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

“You could not have had a conversation about women’s right to vote and men’s need to grant it without naming women and men. (...) Naming who has access and who doesn’t guides our efforts in challenging injustice.”

Research Proof Debate Arguments Wording Formulation Expressing Thoughts

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

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

“People who claim not to be prejudiced are demonstrating a profound lack of self-awareness. Ironically, they are also demonstrating the power of socialization. We have all been taught in schools, through movies, and from family members, teachers, and clergy, that it is important not to be prejudiced. Unfortunately, the prevailing belief that prejudice is bad causes us to deny its unavoidable reality. Prejudice is foundational to understanding white fragility because suggesting that white people have racial prejudice is perceived as saying that we are bad and should be ashamed. We then feel the need to defend our character rather than explore the inevitable racial prejudices we have absorbed so that we might change them. In this way, our misunderstanding about what prejudice is protects it.”

Racism Prejudice Black Lives Matter Race And Racism In America Race In America

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

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

“How can I say that if you are white, your opinions on racism are most likely ignorant, when I don't even know you? I can say so because nothing in mainstream US culture gives us the information we need to have the nuanced understanding of arguable the most complex and enduring social dynamic of the last several hundred years.”

White Fragility

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

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

“I try to follow these guidelines: 1. How, where, and when you give me feedback is irrelevant - it is the feedback I want and need. Understanding that it is hard to give, I will take it any way I can get it. From my position of social, cultural, and institutional white power and privilege, I am perfectly safe and I can handle it. If I cannot handle it, it's on me to build my racial stamina. 2. Thank you.”

Racism White Fragility

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

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

“Interrupting racism takes courage and intentionality; the interruption is by definition not passive or complacent. So in answer to the question "Where do we go from here?," I offer that we must never consider ourselves finished with our learning.”

Racism White Fragility

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

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

“Highlighting my racial privilege invalidates the form of oppression that I experience (e.g., classism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, transphobia.) We will then need to turn our attention to how you oppressed me.”

Racism Race And Racism In America White Privilege White Fragility

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

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

“temporarily suspending individuality to focus on group identity is healthy”

Community Identity Equality Selfishness Alignment Ethical Living Being Objective

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

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