{"id":17446,"date":"2020-11-01T00:46:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=17446"},"modified":"2020-11-13T14:55:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T18:55:50","slug":"white-fragility-quotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/white-fragility-quotes\/","title":{"rendered":"White Fragility Quotes: 4 Passages to Reflect On"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are the best White Fragility<\/em> quotes? How do key White Fragility<\/em> quotes highlight the main themes of the book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Fragility<\/em> by Robin DiAngelo discusses how discomfort with one’s own role in racism leads to defending it. DiAngelo is speaking to white people, as seen in the White Fragility<\/em> quotes below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See four White Fragility<\/em> quotes and what they mean below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

White Fragility<\/em> Quotes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe simplistic idea that racism is limited to individual intentional acts committed by unkind people is at the root of virtually all white defensiveness on this topic.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Racism is not <\/em>an individual character trait. The discussion of whether or not an individual white person is or is not \u201cracist\u201d entirely misses the point about how racism actually works. That’s what the first of these White Fragility<\/em> quotes is getting at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racism is inherently about <\/strong>power <\/em><\/strong>within society\u2014wielded <\/strong>collectively <\/em><\/strong>by those who have it against those who don\u2019t. <\/strong>It is deeply embedded in the social, political, cultural, economic, and legal power structures of the United States. White people, as the group that has always wielded power in America, derive enormous material and psychological advantages from this racist organization of society\u2014whether they believe they do or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that white progressives cause the most daily damage to people of color. I define a white progressive as any white person who thinks he or she is not racist, or is less racist, or in the \u201cchoir,\u201d or already \u201cgets it.\u201d White progressives do indeed uphold and perpetrate racism, but our defensiveness and certitude make it virtually impossible to explain to us how we do so.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The second of the White Fragility<\/em> quotes speaks to white progressives. White progressives<\/em>, however, believe themselves to stand in opposition to racism. Because of their own belief in their moral superiority relative to other <\/em>white people, however, progressives often become extremely defensive or outraged at the mere suggestion that they, too, benefit from (and, therefore, contribute to) institutional racism<\/a>. The gap between their professed beliefs and their participation (however unwitting) in a system of oppression becomes an unbearable psychological burden\u2014triggering white fragility.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been said that racism is so American that when we protest racism, some assume we\u2019re protesting America.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Racism is a force woven deeply and permanently into every institution of American life. The intentions or moral positions of individual white people are irrelevant here. Racism is a system that we all <\/em>participate in, that we cannot <\/em>escape from, and that imposes real <\/em>costs on people of color (and real benefits for white people). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is seen in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n