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

Robin DiAngelo’s 2021 follow-up book entitled Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm explores how a culture of niceness inadvertently promotes racism. DiAngelo identifies several common white racial patterns and breaks down ways in which “well-intentioned white people unknowingly perpetuate racial harm.” These patterns include, but are not limited to:

• Rushing to prove that we are “not racist”
• Downplaying white advantage
• Romanticizing Black, Indigenous, and other peoples of color (BIPOC)
• Pretending white segregation “just happens”
• Expecting BIPOC people to teach us about racism
• Being overly careful about discussing race
• Feeling immobilized by shame

Read this analysis of Nice Racism (which includes an interview with the author) on The New Yorker by Isaac Chotiner, and discuss the specific themes from White Fragility that this new book builds on. For example, how does “nice racism” further the author’s ideas about Discomfort As a Trigger? How does “nice racism” lead to continued white Complicity in Systemic Racism, even as the society becomes more and more progressive (supposedly)?

Teaching Suggestion: You may also want to have students read an excerpt from Nice Racism, which is freely available via Amazon’s preview-the-book function. Encourage students to think about modern events, such as the BLM movement and the killing of George Floyd, to see how, even in progressive society, it is crucial to continue anti-racist work, in and outside of the classroom.