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  • White Fragility

  • Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
  • By: Robin DiAngelo
  • Narrated by: Amy Landon
  • Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (269 ratings)

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White Fragility

By: Robin DiAngelo
Narrated by: Amy Landon
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Publisher's Summary

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. 

Anger. Fear. Guilt. Denial. Silence. 

These are the ways in which ordinary white people react when it is pointed out to them that they have done or said something that has - unintentionally - caused racial offence or hurt. After, all, a racist is the worst thing a person can be, right? But these reactions only serve to silence people of colour, who cannot give honest feedback to 'liberal' white people lest they provoke a dangerous emotional reaction. 

Robin DiAngelo coined the term 'White Fragility' in 2011 to describe this process and is here to show us how it serves to uphold the system of white supremacy. Using knowledge and insight gained over decades of running racial awareness workshops and working on this idea as a Professor of Whiteness Studies, she shows us how we can start having more honest conversations, listen to each other better and react to feedback with grace and humility. It is not enough to simply hold abstract progressive views and condemn the obvious racists on social media - change starts with us all at a practical, granular level, and it is time for all white people to take responsibility for relinquishing their own racial supremacy.

©2019 Robin DiAngelo (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"With clarity and compassion, DiAngelo allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people'. In doing so, she moves our national discussions forward. This is a necessary book for all people invested in societal change." (Claudia Rankine)

"By turns mordant and then inspirational, an argument that powerful forces and tragic histories stack the deck fully against racial justice alongside one that we need only to be clearer, try harder, and do better." (David Roediger, Los Angeles Review of Books)

"The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance." (Katy Waldman, New Yorker

What listeners say about White Fragility

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Dangerously devoid of reality

White fragility is a collection of haphazard personal anecdotes which are collated and used to claim a universal understanding of societal racism.
The author is very unorganised and unprofessional in her thinking focusing only on white and black people to create her narrative while completely ignoring the Asian and Indian experiences.
She attacks the concept of Individualism yet aims to solve racism through individual self reflection, seeking to both absolve individuls of autonomy whilst also holding them accountable.
Di Angelo attacks objectivity, yet claims racism and white supremacy as a universal truths whilst also taking thinly veiled swipes at Democracy, Capitalism and Meritocracy as social goals to strive for.
Di Angelo attempts to break down the good-bad dichotomy of racism, so as to no longer need to hold individuals to account for the intent of their actions only the outcome on others. This makes sense when understanding the emotions of victemhood as uncontrollable, however she then preceded to hold white woman to account for their emotions.
Overall the book was like an ingrown hair with the the author so clearly lost in the fight against racism that she has lost a grip on reality in the pursuit of tactical maneuverings in the culture war.

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49 people found this helpful

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This only futher damages race relations.

This book is toxic. DiAngelo rarely uses stats to back up her arguments and instead uses allegories. For the most part, she only talks about how white ppl are racist towards black ppl and how they will always be somewhat racist. She hardly discusses the experinces of native americans, asian americans, latin americans, ect. The way she talks about race is incredibly binary and generalised. She seems to think that all white ppl have the same experinces and black ppl have experince. The only part of the book I agree with is that white progressives do the most daily damage to PoC, which is ironic when this whole book is basically DiAngelo projecting her own racism onto other white ppl. She's like the school yard bully who will project their insecurities about sexaulality and body image onto other kids. People need to realise that this a problematic book and also need to acknowledge that this is a white person who is profiting off the suffering of black people. The absolute irony.

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26 people found this helpful

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A misunderstanding of racism and people

At times she does touch on insights, but essentially this is just a person who gets hired to “make racism visible” for big money. She’s taken that mission to insane heights, seeing it literally everywhere she looks. In doing so she’s duping a generation of people that were by-and-large already doing a good job of progressing, and set them back 3 decades.

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21 people found this helpful

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narrator very poor

a very important piece of writing an opportunity to exam my own part of white race.
unfortunately it sounded like a Google text to speech was reading it. very it too hard to listen to the tone and rythem of narrator for very long.

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7 people found this helpful

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Rubbish!!!!!!

The performance of this Audiobook was very professional.

The above comment is the only positive remark that I can make towards this book.

Everything that is wrong with the world is publicised in this book. This theory is flawed for so many reasons. Maybe none more so than the fact for this ideology to be "proven" it has to rewrite the meaning of words. This is the biggest problem with sociology, socialist, Sociologist for their theories to work they have to change fundamental facts to suite their arguments no matter how grounded or how many times a fact has been proven.

I normally can read a book even if I fundamentally believe the point of view is wrong. However, with this book I think it should be destroyed and never printed again. If it was just a book that put forward a idea then I could accept it. The fact that this theory is been taught and people are forced into this type of racist indoctrination, I believe it is abhorrent.

I cannot help make the comparisons between this book and that of Mein Kampf.
Sociology is not a science as it is made out to be. It is a discipline not unlike philosophy and to a degree Theology. As a matter of fact, Theology has more provable claims then any Sociology theory has ever been able to demonstrate.

My final point is that the ideas outlined in this book has been claimed continuously during the last Century and it has resulted in millions of innocent people been murdered by governments that have adopted socialist policy. The ideas in this book are the same basic principles that brought the world the examples of Stalin Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Chairman Mao's China, North Korea, Castro’s Cuba etc. This cannot be forgotten and the fact that governments are adopting and implementing these policies is a serious concern and I am unable to support this book into the future.

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6 people found this helpful

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This is exactly what I needed to read

I rarely give reviews but this book hit me so hard I just needed to. I HIGHLY recommend ALL white people read this book, it's comfronting and eye-opening!! A must read!

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6 people found this helpful

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Hard to listen to but worth the effort.

So much of this book resonates with me in enlightening but often painful ways. I've become more aware in recent years how privileged my life has been as a white male growing up in a white society and that the rhetoric around people of colour, (particularly Aboriginal people in Australia) just doesn't hold together.

The authors message is confronting but too truthful to ignore. Thankyou.

This is a book I need to listen to a few times over.

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4 people found this helpful

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  • JJ
  • 05-05-2020

Every White person should read this book!

I think this book should be part of school required reading.
And I think that if you are a person of colour this book as a gift to your white friends would only be a good thing if they are wanting to have a genuine friendship of any kind with you.

also I think white fragility has a tendency to Gaslight people of colour without even realising it, and to know you have the ability to slip into doing so when you genuinely don't want to be, can only help stop one's selves from doing so....

I just really think this book showed me how many areas I could be doing better in and has truly been so helpful to me in my understanding of how to do better and be better for the people of colour in my life who I want to have true and genuine friendship /relationships / interactions with.
To be/behave worthy of their trust, love and respect.

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2 people found this helpful

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Great story terrible performance

Such a shame having read the book thought I’d listen to it too. The performance is stilted and almost robotic like sounds “Siri” like in tone no emotion. Couldn’t listen to it

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1 person found this helpful

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Transformative!

I started the book as one person, and ended it another. My quest for self education will continue.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.