Robin DiAngelo's book White Fragility, published in 2018, has shot up bestseller lists after protests over the death of George Floyd reignited discussions about racism in America.
DiAngelo is white and regards racism as "the foundation of the society we are in." She says white people become defensive and exhibit "fragility" when challenged on their underlying and, often unconscious, racism.
White people will never be rid of their biases, DiAngelo has told NPR, saying their [her] necessary work "will be lifelong: really thinking deeply about what it means to be white, how your race shapes your life."
But as DiAngelo's corporate lecture requests and book sales have grown, so too has criticism of her work.
The Washington Post's Carlos Lozada said the book employs "circular logic." Lozada writes that White Fragility views people of color as "almost entirely powerless, and the few with influence do not wield it in the service of racial justice."
Columbia University professor and linguist John McWhorter, who is black, echoes that criticism, writing in the Atlantic that the book "openly infantilized black people" and "simply dehumanized us." He argues that for "DiAngelo, the whole point is the suffering" of white people, who are "taught that pretty much anything they say or think is racist and thus antithetical to the good."
"Linguist John McWhorter Says White Fragility is Condescending Toward Black People," James Doubek, NPR, July 20, 2020
DiAngelo is white and regards racism as "the foundation of the society we are in." She says white people become defensive and exhibit "fragility" when challenged on their underlying and, often unconscious, racism.
White people will never be rid of their biases, DiAngelo has told NPR, saying their [her] necessary work "will be lifelong: really thinking deeply about what it means to be white, how your race shapes your life."
But as DiAngelo's corporate lecture requests and book sales have grown, so too has criticism of her work.
The Washington Post's Carlos Lozada said the book employs "circular logic." Lozada writes that White Fragility views people of color as "almost entirely powerless, and the few with influence do not wield it in the service of racial justice."
Columbia University professor and linguist John McWhorter, who is black, echoes that criticism, writing in the Atlantic that the book "openly infantilized black people" and "simply dehumanized us." He argues that for "DiAngelo, the whole point is the suffering" of white people, who are "taught that pretty much anything they say or think is racist and thus antithetical to the good."
"Linguist John McWhorter Says White Fragility is Condescending Toward Black People," James Doubek, NPR, July 20, 2020
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