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White Fragility  By  cover art

White Fragility

By: Dr. Robin DiAngelo, Michael Eric Dyson - foreword
Narrated by: Amy Landon
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Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people'" (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue.

In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Download readers' guides at beacon.org/whitefragility.

©2018 Robin DiAngelo (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[T]houghtful, instructive, and comprehensive... This slim book is impressive in its scope and complexity; DiAngelo provides a powerful lens for examining, and practical tools for grappling with, racism today.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review )

“As a woman of color, I find hope in this book because of its potential to disrupt the patterns and relationships that have emerged out of long-standing colonial principles and beliefs. White Fragility is an essential tool toward authentic dialogue and action. May it be so!” (Shakti Butler, president of World Trust and director of Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible)

“The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance.” (The New Yorker)

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Word salad

The only value this has is as a window into the mind of a certain kind of person. The author uses redefinitions of commonly understood language, personal anecdotes, and ideological jargon to lay out a pretty bizarre perspective on race.

The work is absolutely pseudointellectual and fails to cite authoritative studies or data in favor of Beyonce quotes. I’m not sure what type of person would find this author to be compelling. Dogmatically this is a complete trainwreck.

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1,221 people found this helpful

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Worst book I've ever read

I'm Mexican, but I guess I've "internalized" my racism or whatever nonsensical term this white lady uses, because I couldn't disagree more with almost every point and premise in this book. Don't waste your time listening to this.

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875 people found this helpful

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Repeditive and Derivative

Since the author gives presentations of race, hearing her talk about her insight and experience on this important topic seamed like it would add to her book but having heard her book, I see why they choose a very calm, professional reader.

The sample covers the the tone and depth of the book. She is a sociologist and knows all she need to about her audience whom she considers ignorant, uneducated, racist white supremacists members of the white collective or Klan. She's heard it all before so the only feedback she wants is thank you, She make an example of one participant who gives the wrong feedback. In another example she gives, another person is driven out of the room and coworkers think she may be having a heart attack. The writer is upset that this and the possible death will draw attention from what she is saying, Near the end she explains that she is un-white and sees nothing positive in white people.

Her actual material on racism is mostly other peoples work and opinion. The material seems to be used to show she went to colege, reads the right books and to expand this to book length rather that open people to talk about race.

Some people in her line of work, particularly those with her apparent attitude, may like and relate to this book and her experiences and frustrations in talking about race. Others,however, like her participant from Canada, may find this makes talking about race less likely.

She did have a piece of good advise that bares repeating. We should seek more to understand than to be understood and to console than be consoled. I had already gotten that advise from St Francis but its still good advise.

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Lacking

Lacking historical perspective and overwhelming biased by personal experiences which are not representative of the vast majority of non African Americans.

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terrible book do not waste your time

read this book because the title sounded interesting was not interesting in the slightest the author goes on some pretty bull theories and basically gives you the opinion of not believing her with contradicting herself

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686 people found this helpful

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Americentric

The pamphlet is americentric to the point of parody. To the point of nationalistic bigotry.

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Smug, Manipulative and Void of Humanity

There are so many problems with this book that it would take me a few hours to document them. Maybe I will do that at some point.

In summary, the author redefines racism to include unconscious bias and concludes that any and all white people have these and are racists. If you object to the new definition or object to being called a racist under this new construct, then you suffer from a new invented condition called "White Fragility" and should be shamed repeatedly. Over and over and over.

Her approach is manipulative, smug and void of humanity. It ignores the complexity of human existence and human interaction and, in my opinion creates less healthy and authentic interactions and relationships.
Love and vulnerability beget change. Shame does not..

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This book is not helpful.

I'm a person of color (although personally I don't care for that term) that read this in an attempt to understand current trends in the social justice movement.

While it did help me understand the viewpoints these people have, it did not convince me in any way that these views will be useful in the short or long term.

The author is openly okay with racial generalization as long as it's only for whites. This is dangerous territory, because if we say race generalization is ok, it'll be hard to argue that we cant use it in all cases. I can't imagine anyone would want to bear the burden for everything their race has done collectively.

Also, the author seems to imply that we could carry the baggage of our entire race into every social situation we enter. towards the end of the book an interview with a web developer is brought up, and the web dev gives the author a survey that she dismisses as boring. Since the web dev was black, her dismissal was racist per this book. Because she was white, her action is racist. I understand why she uses this definition of racism and all that, but is this honestly useful? I'd say no. It only collapses the spectrum of social interaction into group identity, and dilutes the seriousness that allegations of racism currently carry.

The author also never gives concrete examples. indeed she often gives examples that only apply in a narrow view. She'll give an analogy that misses or misrepresents part of the issue.

Finally, the author seems to have little ability to put herself in the shoes of others. She spends the first half of the book explaining how racism is seen as so bad and so taboo under the traditional definition that talking about it is difficult. then she's surprised that people called racist under a different definition freak out. her response is to call them fragile for that reaction. Is she actually surprised?

Overall this book does more harm than good. If someone came to me for help with racial relations I'd tell them to look anywhere else first.

Regarding the performance: The narrator could've easily been a text to speech program. Every word was read clearly and cleanly but it was so sterile that I had a hard time listening. Still better than blindsight though so 2 stars.

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507 people found this helpful

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Palatable only if you don't think

I might have damaged my eyes from all the eye rolling I did. The author doesn't seem to grasp the concept of providing evidence, instead relies on shared assumptions and outlooks as justification for what is frankly a vile concept. I do think more people should read this, if only to see how poor the arguments are.

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radical

I read it and was not impressed with psych 101 tactics to take away dissenting views. If we only have 1 side of any story we are being robbed of real progress.

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