Why Blacks Are Tired of Hearing about White Fragility…and Why It Matters

Contemporary race relations remain reminiscent of the 1960s and don’t feel much changed from when I was in high school. Conversations about the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, the Black Lives Matter movement and Make America White Again politics echo the same thought patterns. As racism continues to force itself into our national discourse, whites remain unwitting students in a course on racial dynamics — some with a growing level of white guilt, others with a defensiveness that ironically manifests itself in behaviors that reinforce racist practices.

This phenomenon, termed “white fragility,” is explained in Robin DiAngelo’s New York Times best-selling book of the same name, in which she describes the unexamined racial identity of white people and how they disassociate themselves from racism. DiAngelo’s analysis, born out of decades of anti-racism work as a white woman, attempts to equip whites with the tools they need to understand their active part in perpetuating racism and to provide insights for people of color to better understand their interactions with whites. White Fragility, rooted in a social-justice perspective, employs an enlightened (although dated) and prescriptive understanding of the interface of racial identity and racial dynamics. In doing so, the concept suffers from some blindspots that can only be understood by, well, someone who isn’t actually white.

Listening, getting educated, acting with racial humility, thinking before speaking — all actions that DiAngelo suggests whites can take to combat white fragility — are great first steps but can be perceived as self-aggrandizing ego-boosters for liberal whites unless those actions translate into caring more about voter suppression than voter fraud, supporting changes to the criminal justice system, focusing attention on the racism still embedded in our school curricula and disciplinary procedures, recruiting and promoting qualified racial minorities, and choosing to live and socialize in racially mixed settings where trusting, equal-status relationships can be formed and level playing fields can be established and maintained.

Understanding white fragility is Racial Dynamics 101, and a necessary step for white Americans. But awareness alone does not lead to…