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

[b]About "White Fragility”[/b] "Because white people in the U.S. live in a racially insular social environment, we have not had to build our stamina for enduring racial stress. White fragility results, a state in which even a minimal challenge to the white position becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves including: argumentation, invalidation, silence, withdrawal and claims of being attacked and misunderstood. These moves function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and maintain white control." [b]About Dr. Robin DiAngelo[/b] Robin DiAngelo received her PhD in Multicultural Education from the University of Washington, where she is currently affiliate faculty. She was a tenured faculty member at Westfield State University until 2015, when she began writing and consulting full time. DiAngelo has taught courses in multicultural teaching, inter-group dialogue facilitation, cultural diversity and social justice, and anti-racist education, and has twice won the Student’s Choice Award for Educator of the Year at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work. She has worked with a wide-range of organizations including private, non-profit, and governmental, and was appointed to co-design the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative Anti-Racism training with Darlene Flynn. Her work on White Fragility has been featured or cited in Salon, NPR, Slate, Alternet, the Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Seattle Times.