White Fragility: A Discussion
There will be an hour discussion of White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo on Wednesday September 2 from 2-3 p.m. This book demonstrates how white privilege can be very translucent to those of us who benefit from it. She explains that whites have often thought of racism as individual intentional discriminatory acts by unkind people. This book demonstrates how racism is instead much broader and deeper, a many-centuries-old, complex system set up to perpetuate domination of one group by another with many powerful unseen roots. DiAngelo argues that structural racism pervades all aspects of society. It is hard for many white folks to acknowledge the strength of that influence. As whites, many of us avoid the topic, get defensive when it comes up, or slough the discussion off as something we have already tackled. The term “white fragility,” according to DiAngelo, describes feelings of anger, shutting down, tuning out, or having hurt feelings when racist assumptions or acts of privilege are pointed out.
Please join us for a lively discussion of this timely, important topic.
FYI: The San Francisco Public Library has numerous copies of White Fragility as both an ebook and an audiobook. You can sign up for a library card here:
Online SFPL Library Card Application