White Fragility Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapter 12: Where Do We Go from Here?

White fragility can make white people nervous when talking openly about race. Armed with more knowledge, however, white people can come to understand the true structural racism into which all Americans are born, and help to interrupt racism, and repair situations that occur as a result of systemic racism.

DiAngelo describes her own experience in a meeting with a Black web developer, Angela, who was asking for feedback for a redesign of the diversity training website. Not only did DiAngelo make an inappropriate joke about her fellow facilitator’s “Black hair,” she dismissed the survey presented to her requesting information about the intended scope of the website, choosing to answer verbally. When DiAngelo received feedback that Angela was offended by the hair comment, DiAngelo asked to meet with Angela to try to repair the breach. After apologizing for the hair comment, realizing that as a white woman, she should probably not have been joking about a Black woman’s hair, she asked if there was any other problematic behavior. Angela revealed that the survey had been written by her, and that the dismissiveness with which DiAngelo treated it was symptomatic of the daily racism she endured. DiAngelo apologized for dismissing the survey, acknowledging the impact of the dismissal on Angela. Angela accepted the apology, and thanked DiAngelo for being willing to discuss the issues.

This constructive exchange exemplifies the productive use of interrupting white fragility. Suppressing the emotions associated with white fragility can be difficult and challenging for white people, as white racial socialization is deeply embedded. A great desire to make fellow whites continue to feel comfortable, usually prevents whites from pointing out situations where Black colleagues feel held back or diminished. But for a white person, it takes even less social capital to point these disparities out. A person of color has the potential to lose even more social capital in the workplace, perhaps even a job, if they speak out. One way that white people can be better allies is to learn more about systemic racism and how it manifests in the lives of people of color. This will help white people to identify these situations before people of color have to point them out or become victims, and also help white people be open to repairing a perceived racist act. Rather than putting Black colleagues or friends on the spot, and asking them for help, white people can educate themselves by reading what many people of color have already written.

If classes were taught by default in schools about the Black experience in America, white people would not even need to seek this information on their own. One of the ways to create change is to demand that classes about the experiences of people of color are not electives. By changing assumptions on race, white people can change their interpersonal relationships, and then institutions, thus ending the institutional racism that continues to hurt people of color every day in the United States.

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