What Does It Mean to Be White?

Developing White Racial Literacy Revised Edition

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• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Year: 2017
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781453918487
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Education General
• Index: Social Sciences

What does it mean to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless, yet is deeply divided by race? In the face of pervasive racial inequality and segregation, most white people cannot answer that question. In the second edition of this seminal text, Robin DiAngelo reveals the factors that make this question so difficult: mis-education about what racism is; ideologies such as individualism and colorblindness; segregation; and the belief that to be complicit in racism is to be an immoral person. These factors contribute to what she terms white racial illiteracy. Speaking as a white person to other white people, DiAngelo clearly and compellingly takes readers through an analysis of white socialization. Weaving research, analysis, stories, images, and familiar examples, she provides the framework needed to develop white racial literacy. She describes how race shapes the lives of white people, explains what makes racism so hard to see, identifies common white racial patterns, and speaks back to popular narratives that work to deny racism. Written as an accessible overview on white identity from an anti-racist framework, What Does It Mean to Be White? is an invaluable resource for members of diversity and anti-racism programs and study groups, and students of sociology, psychology, education, and other disciplines. This revised edition features two new chapters, including one on DiAngelo's influential concept of white fragility. Written to be accessible both within and without academia, this revised edition also features discussion questions, an index, and a glossary.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Race in Education
• Chapter 2: Unique Challenges of Race Education
• Chapter 3: Socialization
• Chapter 4: Defining Terms
• Chapter 5: The Cycle of Oppression
• Chapter 6: What Is Race?
• Chapter 7: What Is Racism?
• Chapter 8: "New” Racism
• Chapter 9: How Race Shapes the Lives of White People
• Chapter 10: What Makes Racism So Hard for Whites to See?
• Chapter 11: Intersecting Identities—An Example of Class
• Chapter 12: Common Patterns of Well-Meaning White People
• Chapter 13: White Fragility
• Chapter 14: Popular White Narratives That Deny Racism
• Chapter 15: Stop Telling That Story! Danger Discourse and the White Racial Frame
• Chapter 16: A Note on White Silence
• Chapter 17: Racism and Specific Racial Groups
• Chapter 18: Antiracist Education and the Road Ahead
• References
• Glossary
• Index