Robin DiAngelo’s ‘White Fragility’ is Harmful Towards Constructive Conversations about Race in Schools

In the spirit of social justice during these divisive times, my building sent out an optional reading list for the staff. DiAngelo’s book was one of the titles listed. Because of its rising popularity and presence in plenty of racial dialogue, I considered it to be a potentially helpful read to shed light on some of the reasoning behind the political conflict we see erupting across the US. I was incorrect. Not only does this book gloss over essential issues of race relations in American history, it also seeks to generalize human history into some insidious binary that points the finger at white people to explain racism entirely. It’s absurd, counterproductive, and frightening.

It’s appalling to realize DiAngelo traces her roots to Education, for her book could not possibly pass any test of rigor as a unified body of academic work. Her argument obnoxiously relies on anecdotal evidence and baseless assertions, constructed so that the mere disagreement with any portion of her thesis further proves her claim that white people are the sole force driving racism. I feel like it’s necessary that I clarify I am not a white person, DiAngelo’s supposed audience. I am in fact biracial, an identity that is essentially (and conveniently) ignored in this book overall.

The overwhelming praise of this book makes me think that I’m going against the grain by saying this. DiAngelo suggests that “whites” are to look to people of color to verify the tenacity of their fight against racism, so if I at all qualify at a POC under her standards, is it valid for me to say that I don’t live a life oppressed by white people? Can I acknowledge ongoing issues with racial injustice while maintaining that we do not live underneath the umbrella of nation-wide white supremacy? There is an incredible amount of work to do to understand race within the setting of our society, let alone our schools. I simply suggest reading this book and calling out its damaging hypocrisy land somewhere on our to-do list.

Submitted June 29, 2020 at 02:51PM by seeleeburtee https://ift.tt/2NEJ7ub