White People: Stop Microvalidating Each Other’s White Fragility & White Fog
“Is it really that one-sided?”
“Yes.”
White Fragility
Dr. Robin DiAngelo has coined the term “white fragility” to describe common reactions of white people when issues of racial identity arise.
Whites “withdraw, defend, cry, argue, minimize, ignore, and in other ways push back to regain our racial position and equilibrium. […This] push back [is] white fragility.”
Most American whites are unaware of white supremacy in everyday life because the system invented by the founding fathers is effective at hiding the ways white privilege works. This means most white people are raised unconscious of the role whiteness plays in overall society. Waking up to this reality is typically painful, which is what leads to the observable patterns of white fragility.
White Fog
The specific behaviors of white fragility are an indicator of the white fog that envelopes white people as we live…
