SW300 Padlet Showcase: WHITE FRAGILITY by Stephanie Laidlaw https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc Author: Stephanie Laidlaw en-us 2022-05-24 13:35:25 UTC 2025-05-22 01:18:37 UTC hello@padlet.com Why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism? laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197721851 Robin D'Angelo]]> 2022-05-24 13:39:30 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197721851 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197723411 2022-05-24 13:40:25 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197723411 What is WHITE FRAGILITY? laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197724418 2022-05-24 13:41:01 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197724418 White comfort enforces white fragility... laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197729340 and white discomfort leads to a loss of engagement to talk about white supremacy, institutional racism, and critical race theory, which ultimately reinforces the forces of racism.]]> 2022-05-24 13:43:48 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197729340 Why is it so important for White people to do this work and speak about it? laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197731955 2022-05-24 13:45:24 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197731955 Maya Angelo-“It is the unintentional bias that does the greatest harm to people of color” laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197733065 The defensiveness and excuses that White people say about themselves being "nice" towards people of color. That they "do not see color" or even use quotes about judging people on character instead of color are all harmful. Also, not speaking up about micro-aggressions, or how White people to not critical engage with how the structural racism found in policies, institutions. The "silence" from white people and the unintentional biases can offer the most harm to people of color. ]]> 2022-05-24 13:46:05 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197733065 White Fragility is Everywhere... laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197738872 2022-05-24 13:49:42 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197738872 D'Angelo: laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197747510 "The social construction of whiteness in America is a norm and privilege only afforded to white people..."]]> 2022-05-24 13:54:57 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197747510 WHITE FRAGILITY journal by Robin D'Angelo (2011). laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197756295 2022-05-24 14:00:24 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197756295 3 Ways to Challenge White Fragility laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197759817 2022-05-24 14:02:40 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197759817 White person's questions could be...? laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197780447 Did you have the "race talk" when you were growing up?

What does it mean to be White?

What should I do about racism in my implicit biases?

How have I become an adult and just now asking these questions? ]]> 2022-05-24 14:15:12 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197780447 White Fragility = CRT book banning laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197806119 2022-05-24 14:29:55 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2197806119 By developing racial stamina, white people can better address racism and strive to become anti-racist. laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2220202776 2022-06-14 02:18:39 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2220202776 The history of WHITENESS laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221836772 The social construction of a White superior society. Whiteness is a force, referring to the historic, systemic, and sociological patterns that have oppressed, killed, abducted, abused, and discredited those who who not exist in a particular white body for generations... It is a lens of superiority (Riley, 2022).]]> 2022-06-15 10:36:50 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221836772 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221850262 Many White people will become defensive and say "I am not racist!" because they think of being racist as being part of an overtly White Supremist group like the KKK or using overtly racist language or jokes, as seen in this graph. White Fragility shows up when a White person responds to information or challenges when talking about more than just overt racism, but all the policies, institutions, and lack of engagement towards anti-racist social systems. ]]> 2022-06-15 10:56:16 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221850262 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221855779 2022-06-15 11:04:18 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221855779 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221856115 2022-06-15 11:04:47 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221856115 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221858358 Calme, S. (2020). White fragility as White epistemic disorientation. Journal of Moral Theology, 9(1), 136-152.

DiAngelo, R. (2011). White Fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy: Vol 3 (3) (2011) pp 54-70.

George, Janel. (2021). A Lesson On Critical Race Theory. American Bar Journal: Vol. 46(2),
January 2021.
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race-theory/

Guess, T. J. (2006). The Social Construction of Whiteness: Racism by Intent, Racism by Consequence. Critical Sociology, 32(4), 649–673.
https://doi.org/10.1163/156916306779155199

Leon, Paola. (2022) Social Work 300 Class Powerpoint Notes.

Myers, Vernã. (2014). TED2014 How to Overcome Our Biases: Walk Boldly Towards Them. https://www.ted.com/talks/verna_myers_how_to_overcome_our_biases_walk_boldly_toward_them?language=en

Parasram, A. (2019). Pathological White Fragility and the Canadian Nation: Pathological white fragility and the Canadian nation. Studies in Political Economy, 100(2), 194-207.
https://doi.org/10.1080/07078552.2019.1646457

Riley, Cole Arthur. (2022). This Here Flesh. Convergent New York. 

Stevenson, Bryan. (2012). TED2012 We Need To Talk About Injustice.
https://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice/transcr ipt?language=en
   
Sue, D. W., Rasheed, M. N., & Rasheed, J. M. (2016). Multicultural Social Work Practice: A competency-based approach to diversity and social justice. John Wiley & Sons.
]]> 2022-06-15 11:08:02 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221858358 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221866428 When White fragility is salient one is unable to see the understand and engage with the information about the implicit racial biases that uphold structural racism and the racism that lives deep in our bodies, minds, and souls. ]]> 2022-06-15 11:18:05 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221866428 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221869230 2022-06-15 11:22:32 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221869230 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221871262 2022-06-15 11:25:18 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221871262 Why is it important for White people to show up to this conversation? laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221921155 It is also true, that white people often believe that multicultural or anti-racist eduaction is only necessary for those who interact with “minorities” or in “diverse” environments. 

However, the social dynamics discussed by DiAngelo and other CRT approaches will suggest that it is critical that all white people build the stamina and personal understanding to sustain engagement with race (DiAngelo, 2011). 

When white people stay unengaged with race in society because there are few people of color in their immediate environments, whiteness is reinscribed ever more deeply (DiAngelo, 2011). ]]> 2022-06-15 12:33:05 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221921155 White Fragility: laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221922986 Defined as a term used to define this sociological phenomenon of the discomfort, defensiveness, denial, and/or argumentation on the account of a White person when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice (D'Angelo, 2011). ]]> 2022-06-15 12:35:22 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2221922986 White Fragility laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222237596 is a social problem deep in the bones of racism embedded within society (Calme, 2020). ]]> 2022-06-15 18:13:39 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222237596 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222240202 DiAngelo argues that denial of racism within white people's context is because of white’s failure to properly understand how institutional and systemic racism exist, because whites tend to associate racism with individual acts of prejudice (DiAngelo, 2011). Seeing racism from this white lens will then keep racism closely connected to individual morality and therefore will see racism as something a person has or does, an intentional moral evil, a kind of character assaination (Calme, 2020). In this view, “nice, well-intentioned” white people, who may be “open-minded” could not possibly be racist, because they are not evil or deviant. Therefore, when whites are confronted or accused of any connection to racism, albeit institutional racism, they will become extremely defensive in order to protect their moral integrity (Calme, 2020). DiAngelo says for understanding racism, we must go beyond this good/bad binary understanding and look more to the systemic and societal and institutional as our cultural racism reality (DiAngelo, 2011).]]> 2022-06-15 18:17:21 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222240202 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222241563 People of color are not privileged with this insulation so easily. People of color have never known a life or system free of racism (DiAngelo, 2011). Whites on the other hand cannot help but benefit from the way U.S. society has been structured to see whiteness as the ideal and norm (Calme, 2020). When white fragility is triggered within a racial confrontation, a well intentioned white person may feel mostly that they do not have any valid intellectual retort to a black person's experience with racism (Calme, 2020). There is the presumption that people of color generally have an epistemic advantage over whites in understanding racial issues (Calme, 2020). And as a result, there is an added level of dissonance and disequilibrium, which sociologist Stephen R. Calme would call “white epistemic disorientation” meaning white people shut down in engaging in anti-racist education because of not knowing what to say or think because Black people have become so “over sensitive” and this shuts down further to feel less in power or ignorant of racisim work (Calme, 2020).]]> 2022-06-15 18:19:18 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222241563 status quo = Nice Racism laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222247112 White people’s fragility and continual retreat from the discomfort of authentic racial engagement only results in this perpetual cycle that works to hold racism in place (DiAngelo, 2011).]]> 2022-06-15 18:27:58 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222247112 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222248498 Acknowledging racism, and white fragility, as a deeply embedded social problem in the fabrics of our society is not an easy task to be accomplished (DiAngelo, 2011).

White people need to be educated and come to the understanding in their minds that racism is not a social problem of the past, or one that doesn’t affect them or our society as a whole. Anti-racism work is more than just reading anti-racist and CRT books, although that is a very good starting point.

Anti-racism work involves a change of heart and mind within one’s identity, similarly as Bryan Stevenson would say in his TED Talk on injustice in America.
“ Our human survival depends on our work for racial justice; the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice” (Stevenson, 2011). 

When we can define and confront racism in our individually and institutional lives, understand why white fragility matters to racisim, and start to engage with anti-racist attempts to do the work in our own minds, experiences, and hearts, maybe then as a society, we will start to fundamentally change the destruction of racism in our world.]]> 2022-06-15 18:30:02 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222248498 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222249199 2022-06-15 18:30:51 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222249199 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222266632 2022-06-15 18:57:55 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222266632 Do more learning and listening about race from non-white dominated spaces... laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222268888 2022-06-15 19:01:33 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2222268888 Actively be aware of your implicit biases... laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2223702778 A way to test yourself to better be aware of your unconscious biases. Although IAT is not definitive or diagnostic, it is an interesting tool for your own anti-racist commitments. ]]> 2022-06-17 04:26:43 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2223702778 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2223704573 2022-06-17 04:29:36 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2223704573 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2224948586 2022-06-19 14:22:02 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2224948586 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2224974593 2022-06-19 15:28:07 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2224974593 laidlast2 https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2224977818 2022-06-19 15:35:00 UTC https://padlet.com/laidlast2/za8v11sf057s0gc/wish/2224977818