Robin DiAngelo: White Fragility

People of color tend to speak regularly and freely about the pernicious nature of racism because they deal with its stresses on a daily basis. Recent headlines remind us that black people in particular can't nap in common areas, drive around in cars, or barbecue in the park without someone calling the cops on them. But white people, as UW professor Robin DiAngelo argues in White Fragility, "live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress." This environment has softened them to such a degree that whenever they experience the slightest hint of discrimination—or whenever they have to talk about race at all—they freak out and elect Donald Trump to the presidency. DiAngelo describes this phenomenon with admirable academic rigor, and she proposes good, common-sense suggestions for dealing with it.