White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

I first heard about this book in a presentation given to my social justice class by another student. Then I heard about it through a book club which many of my friends attended.

You can get the audio book for free here or ask me for a copy personally.

White FragilityThis book does a great job of exploring many important concepts surrounding white fragility. As a sociologist, I have often wondered how to best articulate some of the things which DiAngelo explores in this book. Reading this book gave me many new tools for exploring these important concepts, not just from a critical perspective but also from a normative one. This book gives many hints for how to be a better white person.

Critically, almost all of these concepts translate to any system of oppression to one degree or another.  All systems of oppression work the same way. So any privileged group within a given power dynamic will demonstrate some or all of these fragility behaviors. I think of this as a key lesson from this book.

Since reading it, I have already recommended it to many people who are looking to learn how to better articulate many of these concepts. I have also observed many non-sociologists who read this book making very eloquent and well articulated sociological arguments using this book as a foundation.

I think this book is one of the best and most important things to happen within the field of sociology with regard to white people.