#robindiangelo — Public Fediverse posts

[...] All of them take race off the table. All of them close rather than open the exploration, and in doing that, all of them protect the current racial hierarchy and the white position within it.

• Dr. DiAngleo discussing her book at the University of Washington

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #Racism #AntiRacism

"Yes, but at the human level..." when we make that move, right, get race off the table, and let's position some kind of shared universal experience. There isn't one in this physical plane that we live in, in a society deeply separate and unequal by race, right? So I call these color-blind because they basically say, "I don't see it, and if I see it, it has no meaning."

• Dr. DiAngleo discussing her book at the University of Washington

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #Racism #AntiRacism

[...] And this is another one I actually ask white folks to remove from their vocabulary, oh, by the way, along with reverse racism, which there's no such thing. All right? Right? Remove from your vocabulary anything on the topic of race that begins with,
"Just happened to be, regardless," including that your neighborhood just happened to be white. All right?" [cont.]

• Dr. DiAngleo discussing her book at the University of Washington

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #Racism #AntiRacism

"...so often the things that we think convey that are not conveying that, and all of these are within that, you know, "It's in the past, just everyone struggles. My parents weren't racist. That's why I'm not racist. Oh, my parents were racist. That's why I'm not racist." It doesn't matter, really, what we say first. What comes next must be, "I'm not racist." [cont.]

• Dr. DiAngleo discussing her book at the University of Washington

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #Racism #AntiRacism

"#ToniMorrison uses the term race talk to capture “the explicit insertion into everyday life of racial signs and symbols that have no meaning other than positioning African Americans into the lowest level of the racial hierarchy.” Casual race talk is a key component of white racial framing because it accomplishes the interconnected goals of elevating whites while demeaning people of color; race talk always implies a racial “us” and “them.”"

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #Racism #AntiRacism

"But regardless of whether the neighborhood is actually more or less dangerous than other neighborhoods, what is salient about this exchange is how it functions racially and what that means for the #white people engaged in it. For my friend and me, this conversation did not increase our awareness of the danger of some specific neighborhood. Rather, the exchange reinforced our fundamental beliefs about #black people." [cont.]

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #AntiRacism #Racism

"Readers may be asking themselves, “But if the neighborhood is really dangerous, why is acknowledging this danger a sign of #racism?” Research in implicit bias has shown that perceptions of criminal activity are influenced by race. #White people will perceive danger simply by the presence of #black people; we cannot trust our perceptions when it comes to #race and #crime." [cont.]

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #AntiRacism

"#Racism has been among the most complex social dilemmas since the founding of this country. While there is no biological race as we understand it[...], race as a social construct has profound significance and shapes every aspect of our lives. Race will influence whether we will survive our birth, where we are most likely to live, which schools we will attend, who our friends and partners will be, what careers we will have, how much money we will earn, how healthy we will be, and even how long we can expect to live."

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #AntiRacism

"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." [cont.]

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility #AntiRacism

"I believe that white progressives cause the most daily damage to people of color.

I define a white progressive as any white person who thinks he or she is not racist, or is less racist, or in the “choir,” or already “gets 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." [cont.]

#RobinDiAngelo #WhiteFragility

"Unfortunately, the prevailing belief that #prejudice is bad causes us to deny its unavoidable reality.

Prejudice is foundational to understanding #WhiteFragility because suggesting that white people have racial prejudice is perceived as saying that we are bad and should be ashamed. We then feel the need to defend our character rather than explore the inevitable racial prejudices we have absorbed so that we might change them. In this way, our misunderstanding about what prejudice is protects it."

#WhiteFragility #RobinDiangelo #Racism #AntiRacism

"All humans have prejudice; we cannot avoid it. If I am aware that a social group exists, I will have gained information about that group from the society around me. This information helps me make sense of the group from my cultural framework. People who claim not to be prejudiced are demonstrating a profound lack of self-awareness. Ironically, they are also demonstrating the power of socialization—we have all been taught in schools, through movies, and from family members, teachers, and clergy that it is important not to be prejudiced."

#WhiteFragility #RobinDiangelo

"The metaphor of the #UnitedStates as the great #MeltingPot, in which immigrants from around the world come together and melt into one unified society through the process of assimilation, is a cherished idea. [...] In reality, only #European #immigrants were allowed to melt, or assimilate, into dominant culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, because, regardless of their ethnic identities, these immigrants were perceived to be #white and thus could belong."

#WhiteFragility #RobinDiangelo #Racism #AntiRacism

"The idea of racial inferiority was created to justify unequal treatment; belief in racial inferiority is not what triggered unequal treatment. Nor was fear of difference. As Ta-Nehisi Coates states, “But race is the child of #racism, not the father.” He means that first we exploited people for their resources, not according to how they looked. Exploitation came first, and then the ideology of unequal races to justify this exploitation followed."

#TaNehisiCoates #RobinDiangelo #AntiRacism #WhiteFragility

some good background on racism in the us:

"The tension between the noble ideology of equality and the cruel reality of #genocide, #enslavement, and #colonization had to be reconciled. Thomas Jefferson (who himself owned hundreds of enslaved people) and others turned to science. [...] If science could prove that black people were naturally and inherently inferior (he saw Indigenous people as culturally deficient—a shortcoming that could be remedied), there would be no contradiction between our professed ideals and our actual practices."

#Racism #RobinDiangelo #AntiRacism

"Our next task is to understand how the forces of racial socialization are constantly at play. The inability to acknowledge these forces inevitably leads to the resistance and defensiveness of #WhiteFragility. To increase the racial stamina that counters white fragility, we must reflect on the whole of our identities—and our racial group identity in particular. For white people, this means first struggling with what it means to be white."

#Racism #AntiRacism #RobinDiangelo

but back to #RobinDiangelo:

"If you are reading this and are still making your case for why you are different from other #white people and why none of this applies to you, stop and take a breath. Now return to the questions above, and keep working through them. To interrupt #WhiteFragility, we need to build our capacity to sustain the discomfort of not knowing, the discomfort of being racially unmoored, the discomfort of racial humility."

#Racism #AntiRacism

"The key to moving forward is what we do with our discomfort. We can use it as a door out—blame the messenger and disregard the message. Or we can use it as a door in by asking, Why does this unsettle me? What would it mean for me if this were true? [...] How can my unease help reveal the unexamined assumptions I have been making? Is it possible that because I am #white, there are some racial dynamics that I can’t see? Am I willing to consider that possibility? If I am not willing to do so, then why not?"

#WhiteFragility #RobinDiangelo #Racism #AntiRacism

"I expect that white readers will have moments of discomfort reading this book. This feeling may be a sign that I’ve managed to unsettle the racial status quo, which is my goal. The racial status quo is comfortable for #white people, and we will not move forward in race relations if we remain comfortable."

#WhiteFragility #RobinDiangelo #Racism #AntiRacism

i've barely cracked into this one, but #WhiteFragility: Why It's So Hard For #White People To Talk About #Racism by #RobinDiangelo is absolutely starting off with a banger:

"Interrupting the forces of racism is ongoing, lifelong work because the forces conditioning us into racist frameworks are always at play; our learning will never be finished. Yet our simplistic definition of racism—as intentional acts of racial discrimination committed by immoral individuals—engenders a confidence that we are not part of the problem and that our learning is thus complete."

#AntiRacism