selfdefined/11ty/definitions/white-fragility.md

title	slug	defined	excerpt	speech	flag	reading
White fragility	white-fragility	true	the tendency for dominant white culture to respond to racism with defensive, dismissive, and angry responses; “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves.” (Robin DiAngelo).	noun	level text tool White Supremacy Tool	text href White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo https://robindiangelo.com/publications/ text href White Fragility tag on The Root https://www.theroot.com/tag/white-fragility

the tendency for dominant white culture to respond to racism with defensive, dismissive, and angry responses; “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves.” (Robin DiAngelo).

Impact

White fragility detracts from critical conversations about the systemic oppressors at play. The cost of white fragility is that it centres the feelings of white people while ignoring and invalidating the systemic harm conducted towards people of colour. White fragility also prevents white people from doing anti-racist work to unpack their socially internalised racism.

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