I’ve been bouncing back and forth between reading and listening to White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. Reading this book feels like dipping a toe in the pool of antiracist works, but not fully jumping in. I found parts of it extremely valuable and insightful, personally, and I think this is a great intro to antiracism for white people who are just starting to pay attention. However, this is written by a white woman. If you plan to read this one, let it be supplemental to antiracist works by Black authors.

Some things that I found especially valuable were examples of DiAngelo’s own moments of racism coming through, and how she moved forward and learned from those moments. It’s somehow comforting to know that even someone who has diversity training as a job still makes “mistakes” - she finds herself perpetuating racism unintentionally. I have a ways to go as I unlearn white supremacy throughout the rest of my life, and it was a good reminder that it’s a truly never-ending process. You won’t just read this book or learn about antiracism and suddenly be free of racism.

I did learn a lot about, well, white fragility, from this book. I learned so much about intent versus impact, and how crying or getting upset when confronted about your racism can distract from the actual pain of BIPOC and redirect and center the attention on you (you being fellow white women). This book is a great introduction to thinking about racism as systemic and prevalent through all aspects of our society, rather than as single acts of prejudice. If you are white, I do think there is a lot of value to be found in this book. Just keep in mind that it’s written by a white woman, and it’s not the end-all be-all to learning about antiracism. It’s more of a starting point.