āI am a white woman. I am standing beside a black woman. We are facing a group of white people who are seated in front of us. We are in their workplace, and have been hired by their employer to lead them in a dialogue about race. The room is filled with tension and charged with hostility. I have just presented a definition of racism that includes the acknowledgment that whites hold social and institutional power over people of color. A white man is pounding his fist on the table. His face is red and he is furious. As he pounds he yells, āWhite people have been discriminated against for 25 years! A white person canāt get a job anymore!ā I look around the room and see 40 employed people, all white. There are no people of color in this workplace. Something is happening here, and it isnāt based in the racial reality of the workplace. I am feeling unnerved by this manās disconnection with that reality, and his lack of sensitivity to the impact this is having on my cofacilitator, the only person of color in the room. Why is this white man so angry? Why is he being so careless about the impact of his anger? Why are all the other white people either sitting in silent agreement with him or tuning out? We have, after all, only articulated a definition of racism.ā
Ā This insulated environment of racial protectionĀ builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time loweringĀ the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility.Ā White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomesĀ intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves includeĀ the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors suchĀ as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors,Ā in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.
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White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
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