White Fragility: Robin DiAngelo

Why is it so hard for white people to talk about race? In this episode, we talk with Robin DiAngelo about white fragility and the defensive moves that white people make when confronting or challenged with racism.

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Dear white folx: "The game is up. You are a racist." #WhiteFragility author #RobinDiAngelo gets into why it's so hard for white people to talk about race, in convo with @kkellyyoga on #CTZN Podcast: ctznwell.org/ctznpodcast @ctznwell

More about this episode:

In this episode, we're talking about white fragility, with the woman who coined the phrase, Robin DiAngelo. White fragility can look like anger or fear or guilt or tears or just about anything that allows us to escape our discomfort. It's not just causing harm to the people of color we engaged with, it is holding us back from any kind of meaningful dialogue and work across lines of difference.

Now, for all of you white folks thinking, “this is not me, I'm a good white person”. This IS you and it's also me, because racism isn't just about bad people. It's about a system and culture that is designed to uphold white dominance. As I discovered in reading her book, the behaviors attributed to fragility are more subtle than you think because that's how white supremacy and cultural racism works.

It's insidious and often invisible, especially to those who benefit and in this episode, you'll hear Robin say, "The game is up. You are a racist." When we can get there, when we can acknowledge how and when and where we are being racist, then we can get to work.

I am one of those people and this conversation unlocked a whole other level of my own racism and really challenged me to reckon with where am I still actively participating in white supremacy, how am I attached to the unearned benefits it affords me and what am I willing to risk so that we can all get free?

What I've learned is that we can survive our discomfort and fragility but we may not survive the violence of white supremacy. This episode is both a reckoning and a call to action for all of us who are ready to do what is necessary to transform ourselves from the inside out.

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