hurt feeling, because although it’s fragile in its
expression, it is not fragile in its impact. White
fragility functions as a form of cross-racial
bullying that takes racism off the table and
silences those who would try to challenge it.
Another trick that racism pulls is positioning
whiteness as the universal experience. White
people are permitted to tell everyone’s story,
but black people can only tell their own story.
For example, Robert Altman is a film director,
but Spike Lee is a black film director. This
equating of whiteness with objectivity leads
us to feel qualified to determine what is racist,
which is fairly outrageous given we’re so
invested in not seeing racism.
Ironically, it’s white liberal progressives like
myself who tend to be the greatest culprits when
it comes to white fragility. White progressives
can be incredibly smug, complacent and unaware,
because we just don’t see racism as pertaining to
us. When the topic comes up, we put our energy
into trying to make sure everyone sees us as not
racist. I often ask rooms of people of colour,
“How often have you tried to give a white person
feedback on their unaware racist patterns and
had that go well for you?” They often laugh and
roll their eyes and say, “Rarely, if ever.” As white
people, we make it so miserable for people
of colour to talk to us about the unexamined
assumptions we’re making that most of the
time they don’t – they just endure them.The feedback I have received on my work
from people of colour has been overwhelmingly
positive; I couldn’t keep doing it if it wasn’t.
People have told me that they’ve never heard
a white person acknowledge what I have
acknowledged. On occasion there has also
been resentment; it becomes obvious that
what I’m saying is what they’ve been saying
for years. The difference is that I get heard
in a way that they don’t.I would never be able to articulate this if it
wasn’t for the years of patient mentorship
I’ve received from people of colour. By being
challenged and given feedback, I have come
to understand that I possess a racist worldview.
I have investments in the system of racism,
and I also have investments in not seeing those
investments. I therefore can’t really trust myself
to determine how well I’m doing; I have to
consider my progress as an ongoing process.
What I can say is that I have much greater
self-awareness and do far less harm than
I used to. The process has been humbling,but realising how society has conditioned
my outlook has also been liberating and
transformative. I feel empowered. I’ve never
been more stimulated. I do not struggle with
guilt, which is really self-indulgence. People
of colour do not need us feeling guilty.My goal now is to try and interrupt racism by
making it visible to my fellow white people.
One of the ways that racism stays centred
is by remaining unacknowledged. It is the
backdrop we never name, and it persists in
that namelessness. For example, we may talk
about diversity, but diversity in relation to
whom? To de-centre racism you have to expose
the white position as just that: a position, not an
objective human viewpoint. Being completely
free of racism is not realistic, but racism can be
ameliorated if it is considered. The first step to
becoming less racist is accepting that you’re
probably more racist than you think, and then
changing the question from if you have been
shaped by the forces of racism to how have you
been. And then get to work changing that. •Robin DiAngelo is a sociologist. She served as
professor of multicultural education at Westfield
State University, Massachusetts, until 2015.
She is now a full-time writer and presenter.107 SMITH JOURNALIRONICALLY, PROGRESSIVES
TEND TO BE THE GREATEST
CULPRITS WHEN IT COMES TO
WHITE FRAGILITY. WE DON’T SEE
RACISM AS PERTAINING TO US.