{"id":6197,"date":"2020-07-22T20:13:47","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T19:13:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gspellchecker.com\/?p=6197"},"modified":"2020-07-22T21:04:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T20:04:03","slug":"book-review-white-fragility-by-robin-diangelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gspellchecker.com\/2020\/07\/book-review-white-fragility-by-robin-diangelo\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW: White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I make a habit of reading books and articles that I expect to find disagreeable. This serves to test my convictions as I bounce them off opposing views and discover whether or not they survive the collisions. Moreover, the willingness to seek out alternate views invariably teaches you something that you did not know. In fact, sometimes you actually learn that your understanding of the issue was completely wrong altogether.<\/p>\n

The fact that Robin DiAngelo\u2019s \u2018White Fragility\u2019 did not manage to be informative or useful on any level is an achievement in and of itself. I\u2019ve never encountered a book so intellectually vapid as to make me worry that reading it may have actually subtracted some knowledge.<\/p>\n

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The general thrust of her argument is that to exist and to be white is to benefit from, and uphold white supremacist structures. She therefore suggests that as white supremacists and racists we should aim to acknowledge this truth, which may be uncomfortable for us. However, we are told this \u2018discomfort\u2019 has a name: \u2018white fragility\u2019. We \u2018need to build\u2019 our \u2018capacity to endure discomfort and bear witness to the pain of racism\u2019. And that feeling \u2018discomfort\u2019 at being informed of our unquestionable racism is both \u2018necessary and important\u2019.<\/p>\n

We are told that ‘a positive white identity is an impossible goal. White identity is inherently racist. White people do not exist outside of the system of white supremacy’.<\/p>\n

There are many ways in which her arguments mimic the structure of fundamental religion. The book is awash with unfalsifiable claims and contains a plethora of conflicting dogmas and injunctions that are impossible to satisfy. The author leans heavily on the idea that you are born sick\u2014sorry, \u2018privileged\u2019\u2014and must seek to absolve your sins\u2014sorry, \u2018whiteness\u2019\u2014for as long as you walk the earth. Also, if you disagree with the tenets of this scripture, that is in itself evidence that the devil\u2014sorry , \u2018white fragility\u2019\u2014is working through you.<\/p>\n

Not only is it a faith-based ideology, it is a totalitarian one. The author asserts that it is simply not enough to accept that you have \u2018privilege\u2019 because of your skin colour. That would indicate a sort of passive innocence\u2014since after all, you did not choose your skin colour. No, you must repent in stronger terms and concede that you are actively complicit in your white supremacy and actually desire to uphold the racist structures that you willingly benefit from.<\/p>\n

And if you find it somewhat irksome to be accused of white supremacy (as any non-racist would), that too is evidence of your \u2018white fragility\u2019. Checkmate, said the pigeon.<\/p>\n

When people come to DiAngelo to ask what they should do to combat racism, she turns the question around and asks \u2018how have we managed not to know [what do to about racism] when the information is all around us?\u2019 This is strikingly similar to the creationist request to \u2018just look around you\u2019 when asked where one might see the hand of god in nature. Racism is everywhere apparently. Oh, and it\u2019s also invisible too.<\/p>\n

Throughout this book I was also taken aback with how often the author reveals how little she thinks of black people in general. She doesn\u2019t consider black people in terms of the individual. In fact, she doesn\u2019t accept the notion of \u2018the individual\u2019 at all, warning that individualism is a harmful \u2018white\u2019 idea proposed to avoid acknowledging the unique evils of \u2018whiteness\u2019. The entire book reads as though a white supremacist feels guilt for their prejudices, and confesses in the hope that we will be inspired to do the same, seemingly unaware that normal people do not think about black people and their own skin colour the way she does.<\/p>\n

For example, the author argues that a desire to have discussions in a ‘respectful environment’ of ‘non-conflict’ is a very white-centric notion of what it means to be ‘respectful’. Therefore imposing these \u2018white\u2019 norms of civility creates a ‘hostile environment’ for non-white people. This is what the racism of low expectation looks like. She goes on to say that \u2018feedback on white racism is difficult to give [and] how I am given the feedback is not as relevant as the feedback itself\u2019.<\/p>\n

Of course something can be true whether it is argued in a logical and calm manner or whether it is screamed in your face whilst you are trying to eat your lunch. However, the idea that the former approach comes more naturally to white people frames black people as belligerent infants, incapable of attaining the white gold standard of rationality and civility. It\u2019s as offensive as it is infantilising. This is a wall of white supremacy glossed over with a thick coat of guilt.<\/p>\n

Of course, no religion would be complete without its prophets, and DiAngelo duly accepts this role, albeit with a dash of faux-humility. You see, since she herself is also a wretched white person, she cannot exempt herself from her core arguments without completely invalidating them. \u2018Nothing exempts me from the forces of racism\u2019 she tells us. \u2018My analysis must be intersectional\u2019\u2014a sentence which should set alarm bells ringing.<\/p>\n

She does a fairly solid job of hoisting herself up on the cross as she admits to being guilty of upholding white supremacist systems herself. However, DiAngelo still manages to frame herself as better than the rest of us through a sequence of totally not made-up anecdotes. In one of the many \u2018encounters\u2019 she shares with us (that definitely happened), she humbly recalls how impressed a black person was with her \u2018willingness to repair\u2019 her own faulty notions of race.<\/p>\n

Also, no religion would be complete without its martyrs. A role which DiAngelo also steps up to. \u2018Because I am seen as somewhat more racially aware than other whites, people of colour will often give me a pass\u2019 she writes. She momentarily reveals how virtuous she is compared to us mere troglowhites, before heroically declaring how she refuses to let her own woke brilliance go to her head. She informs us that this sort of \u2018black acceptance\u2019 only serves to \u2018stunt her path of racial growth\u2019 apparently and therefore the black individual praising her is actually guilty of colluding with her racism.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s at this point she comes dangerously close to claiming a black person is capable of doing something wrong, but saves herself from this unthinkable crime by explaining that a black person would not feel obliged to say such things to white people were it not for our \u2018white fragility\u2019. Close one.<\/p>\n

In a modern twist on experiments concerning the buoyancy of witches, DiAngelo argues that feeling \u2018outraged\u2019 by accusations of racism levelled at you is simply further proof of your ‘white fragility’. When faced with accusations of racism, no matter \u2018how\/when\/why\u2019 they occur, you must not only accept them, but be grateful to receive them. The idea that some accusations of racism will be false\/and or irrational are simply not even entertained as a possibility by the author. If you don\u2019t think you are a racist, that\u2019s simply because you are a racist, obvs. The author advises you to choose from the following approved responses when confronted with accusations of racism:<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate this feedback\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very helpful\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my responsibility to resist defensiveness and complacency\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is hard but also stimulating and also important\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201coops, it is inevitable that I have this pattern, I want to change it\u201d.<\/p>\n

After the opening few chapters of White Fragility, I started to wonder whether its author had ever spoken to any black people before, but it was after this point in the book that I started to doubt she\u2019d ever had a conversation with any humans at all.<\/p>\n

In another ego-massaging anecdote, DiAngelo tells us how she stepped up to \u2018handle it\u2019 when faced with a bout of unreasonable whiteness during a group discussion. Apparently, when a white woman started crying when discussing the shooting of an unarmed black man, DiAngelo removed the white woman from the discussion. Not out of compassion for a visibly distressed human you see, but because her \u2018white woman\u2019s tears\u2019 are nothing more than a manipulative ploy to hijack the attention away from non-white people. Or from DiAngelo. I\u2019m unsure at this point.<\/p>\n

But the tragedy of all this is that \u2018White Fragility\u2019 is nothing more than a pseudo-intellectual misdirection masquerading as compassionate activism. In reality, this performative, humble-bragging white guilt will do nothing to help alleviate inequality or improve the material needs of black people. It’s a lazy way for white racists to alleviate their guilty consciences and continue to avoid doing anything useful for the the people they claim to care about\u2014except for treating them like children. Just so long as you are willing to admit how awful and privileged you are (I.e. talk about yourself incessantly), then you don\u2019t have to talk about the real issues facing black communities or think too hard about a complicated issue and its difficult questions.<\/p>\n

White Fragility is nothing more than a training manual for a new movement of racists. And it\u2019s spreading like a virus. Critical race theory and woke intersectional viewpoints are already embedding themselves within our academia, journalism and politics, regressing everything they come into contact with.<\/p>\n

Robin DiAngelo has managed to monetize the real issue of black inequality and recent racial tensions. And too many are eager to throw their dollar into the collection bowl being passed around by this insidious church of wokeness, in the hope that it will cleanse them of all their responsibilities when it comes to equality.<\/p>\n

This is a far cry from Martin Luther King\u2019s call to treat people in accordance with the content or their character rather than the colour of their skin. By demanding the right to be treated as an individual via the tools of civil disobedience, rational argumentation and a stoic dignity he demonstrated he was better than the ignorant racists who seem to share the same worldview as Robin DiAngelo: Namely that black people will forever be defined, and therefore constrained by their skin colour and history. And we should therefore forever treat them differently because of it.<\/p>\n

No doubt the act of a white man quoting MLK\u2019s brilliance in this way will soon find itself on the ever-expanding list of \u2018racist microaggressions\u2019. But I don\u2019t care. And neither should you. Because MLK was right then and he\u2019s right now.<\/p>\n

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast <\/strong><\/i>here<\/a><\/strong><\/i>, and support it by becoming a patron <\/strong><\/i>here<\/a><\/strong><\/i>.<\/strong><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

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