Book Review: White Fragility

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People To Talk About Racism, by Robin Diangelo, Beacon Press, ISBN: 978-0807047415, Boston, 2018, 169 pages, $16.00 (paperback).    

    White Fragility, a New York Times bestseller by Robin Diangelo, addresses the issues encountered with white people talking about racism. This contemporary examination of race-related issues unpacks the complexity of such conversations and is a required read for white social workers, including those of us who are deeply committed to race and social justice issues.

    In the first chapter, Diangelo discusses “The Challenges of Talking to White People About Racism.” She describes the types of resistance often encountered when in discussions about race. This early chapter offers a renewed challenge to social workers. Specifically, she calls for a self-examination for the ways in which we may hide behind our education, experience, or progressive values while never fully assuming responsibility for our role in racism, meritocracy, and white privilege. The not-so-gentle confrontation present in this first chapter lays the groundwork for a closer examination of difficult themes later in the book.

    For some white social workers, particularly those who have been involved with reading and learning about issues of privilege and racism throughout their careers, many of the concepts and themes that Diangelo outlines will be familiar. However, the book offers an articulate unpacking of the layers of white privilege and the denial that protects us from fully acknowledging our structural advantages, along with our personal and institutional racism. Social workers generally have a sense of the concept of white privilege and other race-related themes. What Diangelo provides is a modern integration of these themes by carefully weaving in the work of contemporary thinkers in these areas. She offers definitions and concepts that may be new even to experienced social workers.

    For example, she covers the concept of white supremacy as not only the structural system of advantages, but goes further to describe the worldwide economic and political impact of white supremacy.

    The book’s title, White Fragility, is defined in Chapter 8, after an analysis of the components that contribute to the avoidance of addressing racial issues. White fragility, defined by DeAngelo, is the “sociology of dominance: an outcome of white people’s socialization into white supremacy and a means to protect, maintain, and reproduce white supremacy” (p.113).

    Chapter 11, “White Women’s Tears,” is a powerful confrontation of the emotional responses of white women, and implications of white emotional reactions to people of color. First, Diangelo reminds the reader of the historical ramifications to people of color as a result of the distress of white women (e.g., as in the murder of Emmett Till). She also submits that the (literal) tears of white women when discussing race-related issues often arise from our own pain of being confronted with our own racism, and that our emotional reactions shift the attention from the experiences of friends or colleagues of color. “In a particularly subversive move, racism becomes about white distress, white suffering, and white victimization” (p. 134). Diangelo notes the importance of pain and grief for whites related to understanding their participation in racism but indicates that “our grief must lead to sustained and transformative action” (p. 137).

    The book concludes with “Where Do We Go from Here?” with a focus on the necessary vulnerability of whites in healing relationships and moving forward in a journey on improved race-related communications. Requests for feedback about behavior patterns, corrective action, and careful listening are all required components.

     White Fragility is a candid, confrontational book and is a must read for white social workers who often have a difficult time finding the language and the capacity to be appropriately participative in discussions about race. This attention to the study and understanding of complex racial issues offers a comprehensive manuscript from which social workers can benefit.

Reviewed by Lisa M. Eible, DSW, MSW, LCSW, a consultant living in the Philadelphia area.