White Fragility Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapter 9: White Fragility in Action

In the abstract, white people generally recognize that racism in the United States exists and has a structural aspect. People are aware that affirmative action was implemented to try to rectify the imbalance of Black representation in American firms and institutions, but many workplaces remain frustratingly homogenous.

As a diversity coordinator, Robin DiAngelo runs workshops at workplaces, to help them discuss racism and hopefully improve diversity. As a white woman, DiAngelo has, over the years, been greeted with less and less hostility when trying to make white people aware of the inherent racism they probably do not realize they have. When describing the structures of wider institutional racism, she is generally met with agreement. It is when giving individual white people feedback about perceived racist behavior by a fellow Black colleague, that white fragility suddenly emerges. The white person accused usually takes this as a personal attack and responds defensively. They attempt to justify the behavior through individual claims that might exempt them from being called racist: “White people who experience another form of oppression cannot experience racial privilege.” “Racism can only be intentional. My actions were not intentional, and therefore not racist.” “Racists are bad individuals, so you are saying that I am a bad person.”

One woman in particular, a German woman DiAngelo refers to as Eva, claimed that because she grew up in Germany, where there were no Black people, she was not racist. When pushed to reflect on messages she had received about people who lived in Africa, or impressions she had received of Black people through American films, she became offended and accused DiAngelo of making assumptions that she was racist. She claimed she held only positive associations with Black people, as many American soldiers who arrived to help liberate Germany following the end of World War II were Black.

While these claims are positive examples of individual interaction, they should not exempt whites from addressing the overriding white supremacist structure that continues to shape how laws and policies are interpreted. Voicing these claims can shut down constructive conversation, leaving both sides dissatisfied and probably upset. This dynamic makes it difficult for workplaces to retain employees of color and for the cycle of white supremacy to be broken.

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