Description

Racism is not a simple matter of good people versus bad. In White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo explained how racism is a system into which all white people are socialized. She also made a provocative claim: that white progressives cause the most daily harm to people of colour. In Nice Racism, her follow-up work, she explains how they do so.

Drawing on her background as a sociologist and over twenty-five years working as an antiracist educator, she moves the conversation forward. Writing directly to white people as a white person, DiAngelo identifies many common racial patterns and breaks down how well-intentioned white people unknowingly perpetuate racial harm. These patterns include rushing to prove that we are ‘not racist’; downplaying white advantage; romanticizing Black, Indigenous and other peoples of colour; pretending white segregation ‘just happens’; expecting BIPOC people to teach us about racism; carefulness; and shame. She challenges the ideology of Individualism and explains why it is OK to generalize about white people, and demonstrates how white people who experience other oppressions still benefit from systemic racism. Writing candidly about her own missteps and struggles, she models a path forward, encouraging white readers to continually face their complicity and embrace courage, lifelong commitment and accountability.

Nice Racism is an essential work for any white person who wants to take steps to align their values with their actual practice, and offers people of colour an ‘insider’s’ perspective which may be helpful for navigating whiteness.

Publisher Review

Once again Robin DiAngelo brilliantly breaks it down, giving us the language and concepts to cut straight to the heart and expose the 'nicer' forms of racism. In this unflinching follow-up to her revelatory work White Fragility, she uses her insider status, over two decades studying and challenging progressive white people, and unwavering courage to take the conversation to the next level. With eloquence, clarity, and startling insight, she explains why white progressives cause the most daily harm to Black and other folks of color, and demands better. Personal transformation is an act of anti-racism, and DiAngelo has just given progressive white America the field guide -- Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times best-selling author With the hard-earned insights that come from years of study and leading workshops on racism, Robin DiAngelo captures the strategies often used by well-intentioned white people to avoid the self-examination needed to confront their own unrecognized racism. If you want to get beyond feeling defensive and increase your capacity for effective anti-racist action, do yourself a favor and read this book! -- Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race In this illuminating follow-up to White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo integrates sharp insight, personal vulnerability, and compassionate guidance with the keen eye of an 'insider.' Focusing specifically on the more subtle patterns of white progressives, her work continues to be invaluable to the project of ending white supremacy -- Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies "Spectacular! With the precision of a social scientist, Robin DiAngelo dissects and puts under the microscope seemingly benign 'white moves'-including her own-in ways that make undeniable how each functions to recalibrate white dominance and comfort again and again. A critical tool for white progressives wanting to know better so we can do better -- Debby Irving, author of Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race