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

by Robin DiAngelo

whiteness has been, to pinch Amiri Baraka’s resonant phrase, the “changing same,” a highly adaptable and fluid force that stays on top no matter where it lands.

Not naming the groups that face barriers only serves those who already have access; the assumption is that the access enjoyed by the controlling group is universal.

we ignore the fact that it was white women who received full access or that it was white men who granted it. Not until the 1960s, through the Voting Rights Act, were all women—regardless of race—granted full access to suffrage. Naming who has access and who doesn’t guides our efforts in challenging injustice.

White people in North America live in a society that is deeply separate and unequal by race, and white people are the beneficiaries of that separation and inequality.

Given how seldom we experience racial discomfort in a society we dominate, we haven’t had to build our racial stamina.

white fragility is triggered by discomfort and anxiety, it is born of superiority and entitlement. White fragility is not weakness per se. In fact, it is a powerful means of white racial control and the protection of white advantage.

After all, didn’t the lack of diversity indicate a problem or at least suggest that some perspectives were missing? Or that the participants might be undereducated about race because of scant cross-racial interactions?

One of the greatest social fears for a white person is being told that something that we have said or done is racially problematic.

Yet all their responses illustrate white fragility and how it holds racism in place.

I believe that white progressives cause the most daily damage to people of color. I define white progressives as white people who think they are not racist, or are less racist, or in the “choir,” or already “get it.” White progressives can be the most difficult for people of color because, to the degree that we think we have arrived, we will put our energy into making sure that others see us as having arrived. None of our energy will go into what we need to be doing for the rest of our lives: engaging in ongoing self-awareness, continuing education, relationship building, and actual antiracist practice. White progressives do indeed uphold and perpetrate racism, but our defensiveness and certitude make it virtually impossible to explain to us how we do so. Racism

Objectivity tells us that it is possible to be free of all bias.

We are socialized into these groups collectively.

emphasized the importance of white people having racial humility

the US economy was based on the abduction and enslavement of African people, the displacement and genocide of Indigenous people, and the annexation of Mexican lands.

The idea of racial inferiority was created to justify unequal treatment;

Exploitation came first, and then the ideology of unequal races to justify this exploitation followed.

Our prejudices tend to be shared because we swim in the same cultural water and absorb the same messages.

All humans have prejudice; we cannot avoid it.

Discrimination is action based on prejudice. These actions include ignoring, exclusion, threats, ridicule, slander, and violence.

if hatred is the emotion we feel because of our prejudice, extreme acts of discrimination, such as violence, may follow. These forms of discrimination

When a racial group’s collective prejudice is backed by the power of legal authority and institutional control, it is transformed into racism, a far-reaching system that functions independently from the intentions or self-images of individual actors.

Everyone has prejudice and discriminates, but structures of oppression go well beyond individuals.

Racism is a system. And I

People of color may also hold prejudices and discriminate against white people, but they lack the social and institutional power that transforms their prejudice and discrimination into racism; the impact of their prejudice on whites is temporary and contextual.

Whites hold the social and institutional positions in society to infuse their racial prejudice into the laws, policies, practices, and norms of society in a way that people of color do not.

A person of color may refuse to wait on me if I enter a shop, but people of color cannot pass legislation that prohibits me and everyone like me from...

When I say that only whites can be racist, I mean that in the United States, only whites have the collective social and institutional power and privilege over people of color. People of color do not have this power and privilege over white people.

Aversive racism is a manifestation of racism that well-intentioned people who see themselves as educated and progressive are more likely to exhibit.6 It exists under the surface of consciousness because it conflicts with consciously held beliefs of racial equality and justice.

drew boundaries between “us” and “them” without ever having to directly name race or openly express our disdain for black space.

White people will perceive danger simply by the presence of black people;

rare moment of racial self-awareness. The mere possibility that I might have to experience not belonging racially was enough to raise racial discomfort.

whiteness has psychological advantages that translate into material returns.

I am free to move in virtually any space seen as normal, neutral, or valuable.

I will not have to worry about my race. In fact, my race will work in my favor in these settings, granting me the initial benefit of the doubt that I belong there.6 I also will certainly not be the only white person there, unless the event is specifically organized by, or celebrating, people of color.

openly racist group was terrifying for Deborah. Even if there were no organized white nationalist encampments in the area, Deborah did not want to be isolated in a virtually all-white environment and have to interact with white people who may have never met a black person before. Yet as a white person, I did not have to consider any of this;

The very real consequences of breaking white solidarity play a fundamental role in maintaining white supremacy.

We do indeed risk censure and other penalties from our fellow whites. We might be accused of being politically correct or might be perceived as angry, humorless, combative, and not suited to go far in an organization. In my own life, these penalties have worked as a form of social coercion. Seeking to avoid conflict and wanting to be liked, I have chosen silence all too often.

can justify my silence by telling myself that at least I am not the one who made the joke and that therefore I am not at fault.

The expectation that people of color should teach white people about racism is another aspect of white racial innocence that reinforces several problematic racial assumptions.

it implies that racism is something that happens to people of color and has nothing to do with us and that we consequently cannot be expected to have any knowledge of it. This framework denies that racism is a relationship in which both groups are involved.

this request requires nothing of us and reinforces unequal power relations by asking people of color to do our work.

found my intervention a refreshing and much-needed example of how to break with white solidarity.

how her racism was unintentionally manifesting itself.

claims color blindness: “I don’t see color [and/or race has no meaning to me]; therefore, I am free of racism.”

second set claims to value diversity: “I know people of color [and/or have been near people of color, and/or have general fond regard for people of color]; therefore, I am free of racism.”

the white masters of enslaved Africans consistently depicted the Africans as lazy and childlike, even as they toiled at backbreaking work from sunup to sundown.

white women have been the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action, although the program did not initially include them.

Additionally, affirmative action never applied to private companies—only to state and governmental agencies.

“the trigger for white rage, inevitably, is black advancement. It is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem; rather, it is blackness with ambition, with drive, with purpose, with aspirations, and with demands for full and equal citizenship.

then we will cry (a strategy most commonly employed by white middle-class women).