White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. In this short documentary by The New York Times entitled “A Conversation with White People on Race,” one of the interviewees says: “I know that I’m white, I guess I’m part of that collection. But I don’t think about being white, I don’t.” Another says: “I really did not know that I had a racial identity. I knew I was white. I had no idea what that meant, how that shaped my outlook on life, how that shaped my sense of optimism, my sense of belonging, sense of safety.” In the corresponding New York Times article, the authors say that, when they set out to write this piece, they had difficulty finding white people who were willing to speak on the subject of race. What are your first impressions about the way the interviewees discuss the race? What stood out to you, if anything, about their responses? What are the reasons some of the interviewees give to explain their trepidation about discussing the subject? Could it be the case that their Resistance to Thinking and Talking about Race Leads to Complicity in Systemic Racism? Be sure to note moments in the video where interviewees explain that their Discomfort is a Trigger, which prevents them from having conversations about race.

Teaching Suggestion: Point out the interviewees’ emotionally charged language in the short documentary: Some of the individuals express feeling “uncomfortable” or “apprehensive.” Some define it as a “touchy” subject, and others express their fear of offending or seeming ill-informed. Encourage students to discuss the interviewee (at the 2:52 mark) who describes her colorblindness when it comes to race when she says she “really did not know she had a racial identity.” Ask the students what they think of this, and how colorblindness might inhibit productive conversations about race.

• You may want to compare and contrast how the above short documentary addresses talking about race with the way the topic arises in “A Conversation with Black Women on Race,” “A Conversation with Native Americans on Race,” and “A Conversation with Latinos on Race.”
• Note that this short documentary series came out in 2015, a few years before the publication of White Fragility. In the last few decades, the societal conversation about race in America has continued to explore why self-proclaimed “colorblindness” is problematic, as summarized in this PBS News Hour video “Why ‘colorblindness’ is not the right approach to race.” Discuss how practicing “colorblindness” can limit rather than improve our understanding of race.

2. Consider the ways in which children are a product of their environments, how the culture and geographical locations of children influence their beliefs about themselves and the world around them. How might Children’s Socialization in a Racist Society give them both implicit and explicit messages about race? How would such messages differ for Black and white children? Offer examples of how white supremacy might be coded into Western culture, and particularly in American society.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may want to share examples and stories from their own childhood, as well as stories about the children in their lives. In fact, post-undergraduate students may even have children of their own. Encourage students to share their personal experiences, but also recognize that there will likely be a diverse range of student experiences in the classroom, and you want to create an open, safe space for conversation where no one voice/voices dominate the discussion. To create a space where all students feel comfortable sharing their stories, review the “10 Principles for Talking About Race in School” and keep them in mind as you moderate your class’s conversation.

• To create a shared understanding on the concept of “socialization,” have students watch the 9:35-minute video “Socialization: Crash Course Sociology #14.”
• You can also discuss the experiment devised by social psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark in the 1940s known as “the doll test” to study the effects of segregation on Black children. This landmark study was recreated in 2022 for The Conversation in their piece “What I learned when I recreated the famous ‘doll test’ that looked at how Black kids see race.”

Differentiation Suggestion: Consider using a differentiation strategy in your classes that tend to have lower participation in large group discussions. Break the class into small groups and ask them to come up with a T chart that compares how the socialization of Black children may differ from that of white children.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the book.

Write a journal-style composition about a moment in your life where you first became conscious of your race. What were the circumstances that led to this awareness? How did it make you feel?

Teaching Suggestion: This is a deeply personal exercise, meant to get the students thinking about their own Socialization in a Racist Society. At the start of the exercise, be sure to advise students that the assignment will not be collected and that they will not be forced to read it aloud. At the end of the writing session, you may ask students if anyone is willing to share, but be sure to convey that there is no pressure to do so.

• If no students wish to share their stories, you can read from Oprah’s “8 Women on When They Became Aware of Their Race.”
• Also consider sharing this brief Big Think video (2:04 minutes), in which Princeton University professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell discusses the question, “When did you become conscious of race?”