[sverona]

> Robin DiAngelo

I'm going to have to start asking for better sources on antiracism than a white woman who makes a career out of corporate "diversity training." Like, of course that's her entire thesis.

White fragility is a very useful concept, for sure. But the way DiAngelo uses it seems to be more focused on making white people hem and haw and feel guilty for even trying instead of doing mutual aid, reading theory, forming community, anything actually helpful or useful.

If I wanted to set up a strawman, that's exactly what I'd do.

[sverona]

In case anyone finds this, I should probably clarify that my beef is with DiAngelo specifically rather than with CRT in general. I think that what she puts forth leads to unhelpful, performative activism, and I think she characterizes Black people erroneously as a monolith. In my opinion, the end result is white people getting bounced off of important work by one excessively moralizing book with a profit motive. For this and other reasons White Fragility is being taken off of some antiracism reading lists.

I'll probably read her new book that's coming out soon, but my prior assumption is that it's more of the same. I hope to be proven wrong.

[yakshaving_jgt]

I remain unconvinced that CRT is at all constructive and I find it peculiar that you recognise it as erroneous to characterise black people as a monolith when this is exactly what CRT does.

My perspective aligns neatly with that describe here[0].

As Trevor Phillips would say[1], Critical Race Theory is exactly the idea I would invent if I were a racist.

[0]: https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/commentary/how-leftis...

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb2iFikOwYU

[sverona]

These aren't the better sources I was looking for.

[yakshaving_jgt]

Could you expand on that? Are Phillips’ (a decorated former MP, and the former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, and also a black man) positions on racism invalid in your view? Is he unqualified? Are you better qualified? Or do you just find his views heretical?

[sverona]

His views are valid, but it would be ridiculous to claim he's every black person or even most black people.

[yakshaving_jgt]

Oh absolutely, and that was never my claim. That is however the implicit claim of Critical Race Theorists. It’s a racist claim, which is why I’m challenging your support for it now.