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Goodreads: White Fragility
Aug. 3rd, 2020 02:15 amWhite Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
If you're just getting started in exploring racism, I suggest "So You Want to Talk About Race". This book requires a little grounding and understanding. You have to be prepared to discard the false binary that "only bad people are racist because good people would never be racist". We all grew up in the soup of a system of institutionalized racism, even black people, and we are going to think racist thoughts and say racist things. This book talks about why it's so hard to get past white people's defenciveness about discussing the things they're saying and doing that could have racist elements to them, and why White Fragility throws the emotional labor and discomfort of dealing with your personal racism onto other people. It's one of the few times my low self-esteem has helped me in life. This book is hard to read, in fact I had to take a break and grab some fiction because I was reading this and a book about "Why you have no willpower and what you need to do to change it."
If you're just getting started in exploring racism, I suggest "So You Want to Talk About Race". This book requires a little grounding and understanding. You have to be prepared to discard the false binary that "only bad people are racist because good people would never be racist". We all grew up in the soup of a system of institutionalized racism, even black people, and we are going to think racist thoughts and say racist things. This book talks about why it's so hard to get past white people's defenciveness about discussing the things they're saying and doing that could have racist elements to them, and why White Fragility throws the emotional labor and discomfort of dealing with your personal racism onto other people. It's one of the few times my low self-esteem has helped me in life. This book is hard to read, in fact I had to take a break and grab some fiction because I was reading this and a book about "Why you have no willpower and what you need to do to change it."