Robin DiAngelo

“We whites who position ourselves as liberal often opt to protect what we perceive as our moral reputationsrather than recognize or change our participation in systems of inequity and domination.”

“The default of our society is the reproduction of racial inequality. I mean, that's what it does; that's what it's been doing for hundreds of years.”

“Until white people understand that racism is embedded in everything, including our consciousness and socialisation, then we cannot go forward.”

“Like a nontechnical user trying to understand a technical problem, our racial illiteracy limits our ability to have meaningful conversations about race.”

“The goal of my work is to make visible the inevitable racist assumptions held, and patterns displayed, by white people conditioned from living in a white supremacist culture.”

“What I do used to be called 'diversity training,' then 'cultural competency' and now, 'anti-racism.' These terms are really useful for periods of time, but then they get coopted, and people build all this baggage around them, and you have to come up with new terms, or else people won't engage.”

“White fragility doesn't always manifest in overt ways; silence and withdrawal are also functions of fragility.”

“While individual whites may be against racism, they still benefit from the distribution of resources controlled by their group.”

“This is what I have learned: Any white person living in the United States will develop opinions about race simply by swimming in the water of our culture. But mainstream sources - schools, textbooks, media - don't provide us with the multiple perspectives we need.”

“One cannot understand how racism functions in the U.S. today if one ignores group power relations.”

“Human beings can only make sense of the world through the lens they were socialized to make sense of it through.”

“While everyone has racial bias, I reserve the word 'racist' to describe the bias that white people have - our collective bias is backed by institutional power.”

“Whites have not had to build the cognitive or affective skills or develop the stamina that would allow for constructive engagement across racial divides.”

“The antidote to white fragility is ongoing and lifelong and includes sustained engagement, humility, and education.”

“The language of violence that many whites use to describe anti-racist endeavors is not without significance, as it is another example of how white fragility distorts reality.”

“Whiteness is dynamic, relational, and operating at all times and on myriad levels. These processes and practices include basic rights, values, beliefs, perspectives and experiences purported to be commonly shared by all but which are actually only consistently afforded to white people.”

“I think our everyday coded language around 'good neighborhoods' and 'bad neighborhoods' is what allows for tremendous violence to happen... When you label a neighborhood 'bad' and avoid it, then you don't know and don't see what goes on there. And there's no human face to interrupt that narrative.”

“I have found that the only way to give feedback without triggering white fragility is not to give it at all.”

“As part of my work, I teach, lead and participate in affinity groups, facilitate workshops, and mentor other whites on recognizing and interrupting racism in our lives.”

“Most white people cannot answer the question, 'What does it mean to be white?' with any depth or complexity.”