Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm

by Robin DiAngelo

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807074121
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	06/29/2021
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	452,931
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.00(d)

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1
What Is a Nice Racist?

2
Why It’s OK to Generalize About White People

3
There Is No Choir

4
What’s Wrong with Niceness?

5
The Moves of White Progressives

6
Spiritual, Not Religious

7
Let’s Talk About Shame

8
What About My Trauma?

9
We Aren’t Actually That Nice

10
How White People Who Experience Other Oppressions Can Still Be Racist, or “But I’m a Minority Myself!”

11
How Do You Make a White Progressive a Better Racist?

12
Niceness Is Not Courageous: How to Align Your Professed Values with Your Actual Practice

Study Guide
Acknowledgments
Notes

Editorial Reviews

05/24/2021

DiAngelo follows White Fragility with a fierce critique of the “culture of niceness” that prevents the hard work of dismantling racism. She identifies many problematic behaviors associated with white progressives, such as showcasing one’s “credentials” (“I don’t see color”; “my best friend or partner is Black”) to establish one’s “goodness,” co-opting nonwhite culture under the guise of spirituality, and expressing disingenuous guilt over the privileges afforded by whiteness. DiAngelo, who is white, has particularly harsh criticism for diversity initiatives that address “every other possible form of oppression” in order to make white people feel included; she also asserts that many “woke” white people mistakenly believe that unintentional acts can’t qualify as racist, and that they are not truly open to the perspectives of people of color, and fail to recognize that a belief in “individualism” (“if we all just saw ourselves as individuals, racism would go away”) upholds white supremacy. Defending herself against accusations that she’s taking the spotlight away from BIPOC authors, DiAngelo asserts that her work is meant to be read in conjunction with theirs, and includes a study guide to help readers “go deep and grapple.” Though DiAngelo’s defensiveness is more exhausting than inspiring, she dismantles unconscious biases with precision. Readers will feel compelled to hold themselves more accountable. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"A powerful new book from the author of White Fragility reveals why profound racism is often found in supposedly liberal spaces"—The Guardian

“A pointed reminder that good intentions aren’t enough to break the cycle of racism.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A fierce critique of the ‘culture of niceness’ that prevents the hard work of dismantling racism . . . [DiAngelo] dismantles unconscious biases with precision. Readers will feel compelled to hold themselves more accountable.”
—Publishers Weekly

“With the hard-earned insights that come from years of study and leading workshops on racism, Robin DiAngelo captures the strategies often used by well-intentioned white people to avoid the self-examination needed to confront their own unrecognized racism. If you want to get beyond feeling defensive and increase your capacity for effective anti-racist action, do yourself a favor and read this book!”
—Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race

“In this illuminating follow-up to White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo integrates sharp insight, personal vulnerability, and compassionate guidance with the keen eye of an ‘insider.’ Focusing specifically on the more subtle patterns of white progressives, her work continues to be invaluable to the project of ending white supremacy.”
—Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

“Personal transformation is an act of anti-racism, and DiAngelo has just given progressive white America the field guide.”
—Michael Eric Dyson, author of Long Time Coming

“Spectacular! With the precision of a social scientist, Robin DiAngelo dissects and puts under the microscope seemingly benign ‘white moves’—including her own—in ways that make undeniable how each functions to recalibrate white dominance and comfort again and again. A critical tool for white progressives wanting to know better so we can do better.”
—Debby Irving, author of Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race

From the Publisher

2021-05-22
The author of White Fragility suggests that with friends like White progressives, people of color need no other enemies.

In opening, DiAngelo recalls a Black friend who, for various reasons, was finding it uncomfortable to address White audiences. Observing her and the group before her, “I saw a metaphor for colonialism.” A Black person was doing the hard work of interpreting racism, and a White audience was receiving her insights without breaking a sweat themselves. DiAngelo makes very good points simply in noting how difficult White people—especially those who consider themselves progressive and who bill themselves as colorblind and open to friendships across the racial divide—find it to actually hear about the issue of racism. That issue is central, because “our identities are not separate from the white supremacist society in which we are raised.” In that regard, merely maintaining that he or she is “nice,” well-intended, and open-minded does little good. DiAngelo writes that her aim is not to explain Black people to White audiences but instead to “teach white people about ourselves in relation to Black and other people of color.” One way to engage is to become an active learner with an eye not simply to nonracism but to anti-racism, to recognize that there really is such a thing as White privilege, and to build “authentic cross-racial relationships.” The author provides enough proscriptions that a reader might feel as if a minefield of potential faux pas lies between good intention and meaningful action. But that’s just the point, and she’s certainly willing to own the assumptions and mores of her progressive kin. “As white people,” she writes, “we tend to focus on the personal impact of receiving feedback on our racism without acknowledging the cost to BIPOC people for giving us this feedback.” Altogether, it’s a valuable primer to be read alongside the work of other anti-racist activists such as Ibram X. Kendi and Johnnetta Cole.

A pointed reminder that good intentions aren’t enough to break the cycle of racism.

Kirkus Reviews