Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm

· Beacon Press
2.7
12 reviews
Ebook
224
Pages
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About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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.

Ratings and reviews

2.7
12 reviews
Tre Scranton (Trémendous Music)
June 2, 2024
A logical and factual assessment from the position of someone who's not African American, sharing the damaging ways that Caucasian people affect those who are in many ways better than them in the areas of life that they look down on others simply for being "Black". The negative public response to this book is proof that some people are literal bots who either don't have the intellectual capacity or free will to do anything outside of what they've been programmed to think and believe.
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Toby A. Smith
October 2, 2021
Although not "fun" book to read, there is not a single point that author Robin DiAngelo makes that I did not agree with. She is insightful, thoughtful, and wise in her observations and advice. This book builds on the foundation of DiAngelo's earlier and equally-valuable book, WHITE FRAGILITY. In this one, she looks in greater detail at all the ways in which progressive, well-intentioned white people work AGAINST dismantling racism, even when they aspire to do anti-racism work. So, what kinds of actions or reactions do we white people employ in anti-racism discussions? Here are JUST A FEW: • Criticizing generalizations made about WHITE people, even though white people have made generalizations about people of color for centuries. • Believing that being "nice" to people of color is the same as being anti-racist. • Shifting conversations about race-related oppression to talking about our own experience with other forms of discrimination like gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. • Claiming we cannot possibly be racist because we have a friend of color, or people of color in our family, or are actively involved in efforts to end racism. • Assuming that people of color have the same experiences we have. • Instructing people of color on how best to fight racism. • Insisting our own success results from our individual abilities and hard work, with no connection to our white privilege. I'm sure, like me, you recognize at least some of these reactions and DiAngelo offers many more in this book. Since I believe racism is THE central, unifying thread running through United States history and the most difficult and complex issue we face as a nation, I felt compelled to read this book. But while ending racial discrimination is an essential and worthwhile goal, this book makes it clear, once again, just how pernicious our white supremacist culture is. Our only hope for transforming is, over time, for more people to read and reflect on this book and others like it.
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IG Music
July 4, 2021
I urge our author to stop pushing black supremacy. Supremacy of any nature is evil. And if you think black supremacy is a fake thing, look up Leonard Howell. Martin Luther king Jr. Even addressed it "A doctrine of black surpemacy is as dangerous as doctorine of white supremacy. God is not interested in the freedom of black men, or brown men, or yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where dignity and worth of personality." So many people now a days seem to neglect Dr. MLK Jr. And it really saddens me. Because as all the wise men and woman have said since the dawn of time. WE ARE ALL created equal. So I urge this author and many other people of today's world to remember teaching's of unity, and not create teaching's of division. Because as you say, the true racists can't even see themselves in a mirror. This is why I'm holding up the mirror to you and others.
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About the author

Dr. Robin DiAngelo is an affiliate associate professor of education at the University of Washington. She has been a consultant, educator, and facilitator on issues of racial and social justice for more than twenty-five years. She is the author or coauthor of several books, including the number-one New York Times bestseller White Fragility. Her work has been praised by Ibram X. Kendi, Michael Eric Dyson, Claudia Rankine, and Jonathan Capehart, among others. Find her online at robindiangelo.com.

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