Seeing Whiteness

Long before the widespread success of the 2018 book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo was breaking with white solidarity and writing, speaking, and teaching on the relationship among white supremacy, structural racism, and white identity. In this volume, DiAngelo has gathered a selection of her groundbreaking works leading up to White Fragility. Speaking as a white person to her fellow white people, she seamlessly blends the personal with the political. The result is an engaging and provocative analysis of the sociopolitical forces of race that shape our lives. Taking up familiar ideologies such as individualism and meritocracy, she breaks down how these concepts function to protect and obscure structural racism. Collectively, these essays show how racism infuses our society and its institutions; it is a system that goes well beyond individual intentions or conscious acts of meanness. By changing the question from if we are part of systemic racism to how each of us plays a part, DiAngelo’s body of work provides a transformative framework for white identity and antiracist action.

Featured Essays:

Chapter 1: My Class Didn’t Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege

Chapter 2: Why Can’t We All Just Be Individuals?

Chapter 3: "My Feelings Are Not About You": Personal Experience as a Move of Whiteness (with David Allen)

Chapter 4: Getting Slammed: White Depictions of Race Dialogues as Arenas of Violence (with Özlem Sensoy)

Chapter 5: Nothing to Add: A Challenge to White Silence in Racial Discussions

Chapter 6: White Fragility

Chapter 7: White Fragility Accessible

Chapter 8: “We Put It in Terms of 'Not-Nice': White Antiracists and Parenting (with Sarah Matlock)

Chapter 9: Respect Differences? Challenging the Common Guidelines in Social Justice Education

Chapter 10: Leaning In: A Student’s Guide to Engaging Constructively With Social Justice Content (with Özlem Sensoy)

Chapter 11: Showing What We Tell (with Darlene Flynn)

Chapter 12: “We Are All For Diversity, But…”: How Faculty Hiring Committees Reproduce Whiteness and Practical Suggestions for How They Can Change (with Özlem Sensoy)

Robin DiAngelo is an affiliate associate professor of education at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her publications include Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (2nd Ed.), cowritten with Özlem Sensoy, which received book awards from both the American Educational Studies Association and the Society of Professors of Education.

“In this book, Robin DiAngelo treats us to a rare glimpse into the evolution of her influential thought, from discernment about the varieties and effects of racism, through limitations and lessons learned in anti-oppression education, to the reliable conditions for deep engagement toward justice and social transformation. Her reflections and best practices provide solace and scaffolding to many of us who are engaged in the work of confronting structural racism.”
— Leticia Nieto, leadership coach, psychotherapist, and educator; author, Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment: A Developmental Strategy to Liberate Everyone

“Without prioritizing the development of white racial literacy, white people will continue to consciously and unconsciously perpetuate systemic racism. DiAngelo’s voice cuts through the noise and compels white people to confront and dismantle the deeply ingrained and normalized beliefs and behaviors that sustain racial hierarchies. This invaluable collection of essays is a gift to the ongoing struggle for racial justice.”
—Bree Picower, professor, Montclair State University and author, Reading, Writing and Racism: Disrupting Whiteness in Teacher Education and in the Classroom

Contents

Series Foreword James A. Banks  ix

Introduction  1

1.  My Class Didn’t Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege  5

2.  Why Can’t We All Just Be Individuals? Countering the Discourse of Individualism in Antiracist Education  18

3.  “My Feelings Are Not About You”: Personal Experience as a Move of Whiteness  45
Robin DiAngelo and David Allen

4.  Getting Slammed: White Depictions of Race Discussions as Arenas of Violence  71
Robin DiAngelo and Özlem Sensoy

5.  Nothing to Add: A Challenge to White Silence in Racial Discussions  105

6.  White Fragility  126

7.  White Fragility: An Abbreviated Version for Non-Academic Readers  147

8.  “We Put It in Terms of Not-Nice”: White Antiracists and Parenting  154
Sarah A. Matlock and Robin DiAngelo

9.  Respect Differences? Challenging the Common Guidelines in Social Justice Education  184
Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo

10.  Stop Telling That Story! Danger Discourse and the White Racial Frame  211

11.  Leaning In: A Student’s Guide to Engaging Constructively With Social Justice Content  221
Robin DiAngelo and Özlem Sensoy

12.  Showing What We Tell  254
Robin DiAngelo and Darlene Flynn

13.  “We Are All for Diversity, But . . .” : How Faculty Hiring Committees Reproduce Whiteness and Practical Suggestions for How They Can Change  275
Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo

Index  309

About the Author  319