Whites often respond defensively when linked to other whites as a group or ‘accused’ of collectively benefiting from racism, because as individuals, each white person is ‘different’ from any other white person and expects to be seen as such. Robin DiAngelo Read Quote
Most people, certainly faculty, believe that if they’re for social justice, it’s automatically integrated into whatever they do. Robin DiAngelo Read Quote
For white people, their identities rest on the idea of racism as about good or bad people, about moral or immoral singular acts, and if we’re good, moral people, we can’t be racist – we don’t engage in those acts. Robin DiAngelo Read Quote
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 Read Quote
Racism has two primary functions: the oppression of people of color, which most people recognize, but also the simultaneous elevation of white people. You can’t hold one group down without lifting the other up. Robin DiAngelo Read Quote
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 Read Quote
One of the most important misunderstandings for white people to get over to move forward is this idea that racism is a good-bad proposition – that if we’re good we can’t be part of it, that being uncomfortable means you’re a terrible person. We have to let go of that and understand it as a system we all live in. Robin DiAngelo Read Quote
While everyone has racial bias, I reserve the word ‘racist’ to describe the bias that white people have – our collective bias is backed by institutional power. Robin DiAngelo Read Quote
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 Read Quote
While individual whites may be against racism, they still benefit from the distribution of resources controlled by their group. Robin DiAngelo Read Quote
