People of color understand what it means to be white more than I ever will. Robin DiAngelo More Quotes by Robin DiAngelo More Quotes From Robin DiAngelo We all absorb this stuff, sometimes the thoughts that pass across my mind are shocking to me. I don't think I can be free of it. Robin DiAngelo top-news One of the things I try to work with white people on is letting go of our criteria about how people of color give us feedback. We have to build our stamina to just be humble and bear witness to the pain we've caused. Robin DiAngelo pain humble work people The antidote to white fragility is ongoing and lifelong and includes sustained engagement, humility, and education. Robin DiAngelo engagement humility white education I don't believe it's humanly possible to be free of bias. Robin DiAngelo possible free bias believe A fundamental but very challenging part of my work is moving white people from an individual understanding of racism - i.e. only some people are racist and those people are bad - to a structural understanding. Robin DiAngelo racism white work people Human beings can only make sense of the world through the lens they were socialized to make sense of it through. Robin DiAngelo human only through world While having friends of color is better than not having them, it doesn't change the overall system or prevent racism from surfacing in our relationships. The societal default is white superiority, and we are fed a steady diet of it 24/7. To not actively seek to interrupt racism is to internalize and accept it. Robin DiAngelo friends change racism white Most whites live, grow, play, learn, love, work and die primarily in social and geographic racial segregation. Yet, our society does not teach us to see this as a loss. Pause for a moment and consider the magnitude of this message: We lose nothing of value by having no cross-racial relationships. Robin DiAngelo moment society work love As white people in this society, we are socialized from the time that we're born to see ourselves as superior, to see white people and things associated white people as superior. At the same time, I'm encouraged to never admit to that. I'm taught that racism is very bad and immoral. Robin DiAngelo society racism time people Denying that race matters is irrational in the face of segregation and all of the other forms of obvious racial inequity in society... Maintaining this denial of reality takes tremendous emotional and psychic energy. Robin DiAngelo face society energy reality As part of my work, I teach, lead and participate in affinity groups, facilitate workshops, and mentor other whites on recognizing and interrupting racism in our lives. Robin DiAngelo mentor teach racism work I grew up poor and white. While my class oppression has been relatively visible to me, my race privilege has not. In my efforts to uncover how race has shaped my life, I have gained deeper insight by placing race in the center of my analysis and asking how each of my other group locations have socialized me to collude with racism. Robin DiAngelo my-life me racism life In the U.S., while individual whites might be against racism, they still benefit from their group's control. Yes, an individual person of color can sit at the tables of power, but the overwhelming majority of decision-makers will be white. Yes, white people can have problems and face barriers, but systematic racism won't be one of them. Robin DiAngelo face racism power people In aversive racism, the concept of racism is abhorrent to that person. But they're filled with racist conditioning and bias, as we all are. Because that conflicts with their identity as good people, they suppress it and are even more in denial about it. They are even more likely to erupt in defensiveness if it gets called out. Robin DiAngelo good racism identity people Until white people understand that racism is embedded in everything, including our consciousness and socialisation, then we cannot go forward. Robin DiAngelo understand racism white people This is what I have learned: Any white person living in the United States will develop opinions about race simply by swimming in the water of our culture. But mainstream sources - schools, textbooks, media - don't provide us with the multiple perspectives we need. Robin DiAngelo swimming white water culture Although racism does, of course, occur in individual acts, these acts are part of a larger system that we all participate in. The focus on individual incidences prevents the analysis that is necessary in order to challenge this larger system. Robin DiAngelo challenge individual focus racism The goal of my work is to make visible the inevitable racist assumptions held, and patterns displayed, by white people conditioned from living in a white supremacist culture. Robin DiAngelo white work culture people Like a nontechnical user trying to understand a technical problem, our racial illiteracy limits our ability to have meaningful conversations about race. Robin DiAngelo understand limits problem race If I have no idea how my race shapes me, I am probably not going to be open to any feedback about how your race shapes you. Robin DiAngelo your i-am me you
