Robin DiAngelo, a tenured professor who has been doing diversity training for business for 20 years, wrote a book titled White Fragility. In the wake of the George Floyd’s protests, with many people desperate to find answers, this book rose to No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction list. While it has the appearance of postulating progressive ideas that elucidate various racial problems in this country, and does in fact point out legitimate systemic racial disparities and resulting individual biases in the process, the overall message is not only misguided but in some ways destructive.
On the very first page, the book reveals a degree of disconnect with the struggles of working class people:
“A white man is pounding his fist on the table. As he pounds, he yells, ‘A white person can’t get a job anymore!’ I look around the room and see forty employees, thirty-eight of whom are white. Why is this white man so angry?’” (p1).
Immediately, the framing is: who is taking away jobs from whom? Sure, the white people in the room have jobs, but how many jobs had they previously lost through no fault of their own? How many jobs had they been turned away from? How many of their friends and family members are struggling to find jobs?
This arrives at the crux of the issue. A wealthy privileged white person stands in front of the room and explains that the reason black people with little money and little power are suffering is because white people with little money and little power are in denial of their own subconscious racism. Readers become tangled in this web and do not stop to ask, “Where is all the money and power?” One might answer “in the hands of white people,” but this would be a gross oversimplification. Over the past couple decades, there has been a massive wealth transfer to the top 1%. While minority communities, which were already disadvantaged for various historical reasons, were disproportionately affected by this wealth transfer, in essence both the black community and the white working class are victims of the same problem. With this deception and distraction, a small handful of privileged individuals can hold on to their wealth while the rest of the people fight over crumbs.
This is the philosophy behind an 8 billion dollar diversity training industry, which according to studies has served only to reduce diversity and exacerbate participant biases.
Perhaps you may be thinking that black people suffered unimaginable hardship in this country, and surely white people can handle a little criticism. However, rather than comparing hardships, one needs to be focused on the tasks that lie ahead. Antagonism and dismissiveness serve no purpose and in particular have no place when faced with a pandemic. Imagine telling someone, “Everything you say and do is subconsciously racist and you need to stop talking and let the black person speak. Oh and by the way, you need to trust us and wear a mask in public.” By agreeing to wear masks, we are giving up a freedom but in the good faith that this will greatly curb the pandemic and prevent thousands of deaths. When another freedom, the freedom to voice opinions and concerns and defend oneself, appears to be simultaneously threatened, as Robin DiAngelo too often did when she silenced and chided the white people in her seminars in the name of racial justice, there will be less of a willingness to give up minor freedoms for the greater good. In this way, yet another large group of individuals is alienated, and a fractured country struggles to face some of the greatest challenges in recent human history.
DiAngelo, Robin J. White Fragility: Why It's so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Boston: Beacon Press, 2018.
Written by Ramya. Artwork by Dhanya.
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