White Fragility

 This week's reading was really interesting. I found the topic of White Fragility to be very poignant and informative. I'm a white woman and come from a place of ease and privilege. I won't deny these things, especially since they've informed my thinking. I grew up in an affluent, mostly white neighborhood and school district. For a long time, I was uninformed about how bad racism was. It wasn't until I became older and started moving out of my comfort zone that I really started to recognize what the world was really like. I really liked how Robin DiAngelo the author of White Fragility broke down the situation; Robin at the beginning of the article stated: "White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress" (DiAngelo, 54). I personally lived in such an environment where the topic of race was rather hush-hush. Even the conversation in class was guided by and directed under the influence of a white influence. I learned very little and did not seek out further information. 

DiAngelo further elaborates on her point about White Fragility, but another thing that resonated with me from her article was when she said "So-called progressive whites may not respond with anger but may still insulate themselves via claims that they are beyond the need for engaging with the content because they 'already had a class on this' or 'already know this " (DiAngelo, 55).  I have seen what DiAngelo is saying one time too many. I'm sure I've probably done this myself in the past. It is a privilege in and of itself to be ignorant to someone else's struggles. It is a privilege to not have experienced firsthand the discrimination. Pretending you aren't part of the problem makes you just as bad as someone who is too blind to see that there is a problem at all. It is difficult to unlearn old ways and teachings, but it can be done. Patients and empathy can take people a long way from their upbringings.