Definitions Archives - Tools For Racial Justice

A Sociologist Examines the “White Fragility” That Prevents White Americans from Confronting Racism

by Katy Waldman | July 2018
In more than twenty years of running diversity-training and cultural-competency workshops for American companies, the academic and educator Robin DiAngelo has noticed that white people are sensationally, histrionically bad at discussing racism. Like waves on sand, their reactions form predictable patterns: they will insist that they “were taught to treat everyone the same,” that they are “color-blind,” that they “don’t care if you are pink, purple, or polka-dotted.” They will point to friends and family members of color, a history of civil-rights activism, or a more “salient” issue, such as class or gender. They will shout and bluster. They will cry. In 2011, DiAngelo coined the term “white fragility” to describe the disbelieving defensiveness that white people exhibit when their ideas about race and racism are challenged—and particularly when they feel implicated in white supremacy. Why, she wondered, did her feedback prompt such resistance, as if the mention of racism were more offensive than the fact or practice of it? A New Yorker article on Robin DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility”.
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Fragility/Tears] [Definitions]

7 Reasons Why Reverse Racism Doesn’t Exist

by S.E. Smith | Nov. 2014, updated March 2020
The author details 7 reasons why “reverse racism” doesn’t exist. Among other reasons, Smith notes: “White people, in contrast with people of color, do not experience systemic discrimination that makes it difficult to find and hold jobs, access housing, get health care, receive a fair treatment in the justice system, and more.”
TAGS: [Assumptions] [“Reverse Racism”] [Police Shootings] [Definitions] [2010’s]

Transforming White Fragility Into Courageous Imperfection

by Courtney E. Martin | June 2015
“I’m grateful for a framing that helps me understand my own fragility. Experimenting with how I use the power that comes from my privilege is a messy process. Sometimes I feel like I manage to do something really useful in the world, whether its recommending a brilliant person of color to speak at a conference and working with them to hone their transformative message for a broad audience or saying I won’t speak on a panel that I’ve been invited to because there isn’t a person of color on it. Interestingly, white fragility often shows up as talking a lot, a kind of flood of effortful explaining, or the equivalent of a peacock’s display of anti-racist sentiment — posting on social media with great fanfare or calling out other white people with a sort of zeal.”
TAGS: [Individual Change] [2010’s] [White Fragility/Tears] [White Privilege] [White Culture] [Accountability] [Systemic Racism] [Collective Action] [Definitions]

No, I Won’t Stop Saying “White Supremacy”

by Robin Diangelo | June 2017
White people like me should use the term because it shifts the race problem to us, where it belongs. Many people, especially older white people, associate the term white supremacy with extreme and explicit hate groups. However, for sociologists, white supremacy is a highly descriptive term for the culture we live in; a culture which positions white people and all that is associated with them (whiteness) as ideal.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [White Supremacy] [Definitions] [Individual Change]

11-Step Guide to Understanding Race, Racism, and White Privilege

by Jon Greenberg | October 2017
In the wake of terrorism against Black Americans in Charleston, beyond outraged and fed up, I compiled a list of race-related resources for fellow White Americans, who too often have the privilege to remain ignorant of the realities and toll of racism.This Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism – from Ferguson to Charleston clearly struck a chord. The piece has been read and shared hundreds of thousands of times and been linked to by NPR, The Huffington Post and Teaching Tolerance.
TAGS: [Strategies] [2010’s] [White Privilege] [Systemic Racism] [White Supremacy] [Tips-Dos/Don’ts] [History] [Policing] [Definitions]