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Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in White Fragility, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
White Fragility
White Supremacy
Racism and the Good/Bad Binary
Individualism, Objectivity, and Meritocracy
Summary
Analysis
DiAngelo brings up several additional examples of white fragility, such as board presidents not liking the title of her workshop because it has the word “white” in it, white people getting defensive when coworkers ask for more diversity in hiring, or a white woman yelling at an event organizer of color because a talk during the event (which DiAngelo gave, not the organizer) didn’t address Native Americans specifically.
These examples of white fragility range from simple avoidance, like the board president unwilling to acknowledge a shared “white” identity, to projection and deflection. Here, the white woman is outraged over DiAngelo’s talk without realizing the impact of her yelling at a woman of color and without acknowledging her own complicity in white supremacy.
Themes
DiAngelo is in a position to give white people feedback on their unintentional racism. Because she is white, white people are more open to her message than they would be otherwise. They are often receptive to her presentation as long as it remains abstract. But when she names a racially problematic dynamic in the room, white fragility erupts among listeners.
White people readily acknowledge white supremacy in a theoretical way but react with white fragility when they have to acknowledge their own complicity in it, thus obscuring white people’s involvement in white supremacy.
Themes
In one of DiAngelo’s volunteer workshops, one white woman, Eva, stated that because she grew up in Germany (where she said there were no Black people) she was not racist. DiAngelo pushed back, explaining that Eva likely still absorbed messages from movies or impressions about African countries growing up, and that she had likely absorbed messages in the 23 years she lived in the U.S. Afterward, Eva approached DiAngelo, furious that DiAngelo made assumptions about her. Notably, DiAngelo did not tell Eva that she was racist. DiAngelo simply challenged Eva’s self-image as someone wholly exempt from racism, at a workshop that she volunteered to attend to deepen her understanding of racism.
This example shows how white people don’t only react with white fragility when people give feedback on problematic behavior, but also at the mere possibility that they could exhibit racist behavior or are not exempt from it, like Eva does. This illustrates the sheer degree of avoidance people have with being associated with racism.
Themes
Common feelings of white fragility include feeling angry, insulted, judged, attacked, guilty, or silenced. Common behaviors include crying, leaving the room or situation, withdrawing, arguing, or denying. Common responses include deflecting, saying that DiAngelo is generalizing, that they didn’t mean any offense, that some other form of oppression is more important, or that their feelings are hurt. In one email DiAngelo received through a public website, a woman says that due to DiAngelo’s age, there isn’t anything DiAngelo could teach her about race, and that she has shed any racism she may have had through her relationships with Black people and that she lived through the civil rights movement. Many white people make similar claims rather than addressing their assumptions.
This woman’s belief that DiAngelo couldn’t teach her anything about race (presumably because DiAngelo didn’t live through the civil rights movement) illustrates again the belief that racism can only be perpetrated intentionally and by immoral people—anyone involved in the civil rights movement is free of racism under this statement. Again, these claims rest on faulty principals and only serve to deflect from racism rather than eradicate it.
Themes
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Claims of being free of racism, or of being a good person, or that it’s unkind to point out racism, all serve to maintain white solidarity, close off self-reflection, make white people the victims, hijack the conversation, and protect a limited worldview. These behaviors do not present the person as racially open, but instead block any entry point for reflection and engagement. In short, the claims protect racist behavior.
While white fragility is a tactic white people use to try to prove that they are not racist, in reality it only paints white people as unaware and unopen. Rather than admit racism and work to change it, white people often react with white fragility, which ensures close-mindedness and white supremacy and racism’s continuation because white people are unwilling to address problematic behavior.
Themes
