Instead, we use their absence as the value-measure of our space. That is the most profound message of all – that we could go cradle to grave and not see anything of value lost in not having authentic relationships with black people. Most of us go through our lives in segregation without seeing anything of value lost. That is a truer measure of who is in your friendship circle and sitting at your table. Most white people do not have authentic sustained relationships across race, particularly with black people. Most white people go cradle to grave in racial segregation. We move through a society in which racial inequality is the very bedrock in racial comfort as white people and we are rarely ever out of our racial comfort zones. We have rarely ever been challenged in our racial worldview. How can white people be fragile If we have white privilege?ĭiAngelo: That’s precisely why we’re fragile. Q: The theme of your book “White Fragility” is how white people are perpetuating racism by being too fragile to discuss the subject openly and honestly. I hope to God that isn’t wasted in the sense of what it has ignited. I’m devastated that this is the price that it took: Watching one more – not just one – but one more black man murdered in the most callous and public way. I do want to put some thoughtfulness around saying that there is a difference to this moment. And when I feel discouraged, I remember that because I think “We got 30%. This is where I remember Malcolm Gladwell’s tipping point theory: You only need 30%. But it needs to be sustained, and I’m a little worried about what happens when the cameras go away. For the first time ever in history, I think, a recent poll showed that more white Americans believe that there are advantages to being white than don’t believe that. We’re hearing a discussion of reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans on the Democratic debate stage. You can google “What can white people do right now?” and you wouldn’t be able to keep up with all of the excellent lists of resources and guidance. The number one and two books being sold in the world right now are both on racism, one written by me, a white person, and one written by Ibram X. Those of us who have been beating this drum for years are finally hearing phrases like “systemic racism” used in the mainstream media. There is discourse in the mainstream media that I didn’t think I’d ever hear in my life. They are ongoing and spreading around the world. Q: Is this a “Me Too” moment for racial equality or is the conversation going to fizzle and fade as it’s done in the past?ĭiAngelo: There are a few things that I think are different about this moment. The conversation has been edited for flow and clarity. What started as an essay written in 2011 on racial and social injustice has become an international sensation, flying off the internet shelves into the homes of those horrified by recent events.ĬNN sat down with DiAngelo to ask her thoughts on the conversations around today’s protests, how they fit into the history of the civil rights movement, and what white people need to do now. “How dare you say I am anything like them?” you grumble, as you pull the cloak of your bruised and fragile feelings around you.Īnd there – with that simple act – you personify the theme of DiAngelo’s best selling 2018 book, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism.” You may be indignantly sputtering right now at this insult to your humanity – for how can you be a racist? You have black colleagues you consider friends you don’t see skin color you never owned slaves you marched in the 60s you even protest today against the uniformed “bad apples” that use the power of their authority to smother minority lives and minority rights. You just can’t help it, you see, because you’ve been swaddled in the cocoon of white privilege since you came sputtering out of your mother’s womb, protesting the indignity of it all. If you’re a white person in America, social justice educator Robin DiAngelo has a message for you: You’re a racist, pure and simple, and without a lifetime of conscious effort you always will be.
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