Building on the groundwork laid in the New York Times bestseller
White Fragility, Robin
DiAngelo explores how a culture of niceness inadvertently promotes
racism.
In White
Fragility, Robin DiAngelo explained how racism is a system into
which all white people are socialized and challenged the belief that
racism is a simple matter of good people versus bad. DiAngelo also
made a provocative claim: white progressives cause the most daily
harm to people of color. In Nice Racism, her follow-up work,
she explains how they do so. Drawing on her background as a
sociologist and over 25 years working as an anti-racist educator, she
picks up where White Fragility left off and moves the conversation
forward.
Writing directly to
white people as a white person, DiAngelo identifies many common white
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 color (BIPOC)
• pretending
white segregation “just happens”
• expecting
BIPOC people to teach us about racism
• carefulness
• and feeling
immobilized by shame.
DiAngelo explains
how spiritual white progressives seeking community by co-opting
Indigenous and other groups’ rituals create separation, not
connection. She challenges the ideology of individualism and explains
why it is OK to generalize about white people, and she 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 recognizes the
existence of systemic racism and white supremacy and wants to take
steps to align their values with their actual practice. BIPOC readers
may also find the “insiders” perspective useful for navigating
whiteness.
Includes a study
guide.