White fragility/white privilege — a list of resources

The following list of resources is a section of On being white in today's America, part 3 of On microaggressions, privilege, and systemic racism: A resource for white people.

• Why “White Privilege” Doesn’t Feel Real to White People, uploaded Jul. 20, 2025 to the Sylvanaqua Farms channel on YouTube. ("It’s hard for white folks to see whiteness as an advantage when they’re mostly competing against other white people… which exists side by side with the belief of many white folks that this tiny number of Black folks are snatching up all their opportunities.")

• 'Nice Racism': A review, by Kat C., Jun. 5, 2023. (Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm, by Robin DiAngelo, Beacon Press, Boston, 2021.)

• What’s Missing From “White Fragility”, by Lauren Michele Jackson, Slate, Sept. 04, 2019. ("Nonreciprocal expertise about white behavior, white history, white ethnics, and white sociality has always been mandatory for nonwhites in America. ... I observe little that suggests America has learned anything about race over the past 30 years besides how better to conceal its racism. ... In a borderlands e-journal article published 15 years ago, Sara Ahmed asked, 'Is a whiteness that is anxious about itself — its narcissism, its egoism, its privilege, its self-centeredness — better?' Explicitly concerned with a whiteness studies that says all the right things, Ahmed argues that 'putting whiteness into speech … however critically, is not an anti-racist action.' Declaring that whiteness exists — for others or oneself — does not, itself, do anything. Saying “I have privilege” does not do anything besides make the speaker feel good, and feeling good is anathema to social change. ... For feeling good, in fact, nurtures the conditions for white fragility.")

• ​​Robin DiAngelo and the Problem With Anti-racist Self-Help, by Danzy Senna, The Atlantic, Sept. 2021. ("The world {DiAngelo and Martin} evoke is one in which white people remain the center of the story and Black people are at the margins, poor, stiff, and dignified, with little better to do than open their homes and hearts to white women on journeys to racial self-awareness." In other words, it's not enough to simply be aware of our white privilege and fragility. But this article, written by a Black author, offers no solutions. Instead, she highlights the chasm between white awareness and Black reality. "Black people in {DiAngelo and Martin's} books are oppressed," she writes. "White people are clueless and privileged. And never the twain shall meet.")

  • This article is also available on Inkl.

• Because racism is intersectional, I’m including the following related checklists:

  • Examples of Heterosexual Privilege

  • Cisgender Privilege Checklist

  • Christian Privilege Checklist

• Why white people keep calling the cops on black Americans, by By Vesla Mae Weaver, VOX, May 29, 2018. ("White people call cops to remove black people because it often works.")

• Living While Black and the criminalization of blackness, by P.R. Lockhart, Vox, Aug. 1, 2018. ("The story of Living While Black isn’t just about black people. It’s also about white people, their anxieties, and what that anxiety means for black people simply trying to navigate daily life.")

• Philadelphia Eagles Won Big Sunday Night. So Did White Privilege—Again, by Ernest Owens, The Daily Beast, Jan. 31, 2023. (Mass vandalism and violence? No problem! So long as it's not a Black Lives protest....)

• Well-meaning white people asking for Black help to end racism is a trap, by David J. Johns, The Grio, Jun. 3, 2020. (This article doesn't specifically address white privilege. However, it IS a clear statement that asking Black people to help us end our own racism is just another way of falling back on our privilege.)

• Questioning Safety Pin Solidarity Revealed Why I Can’t Trust White People, by Ijeoma Oluo, The Establishment, Nov. 13, 2016. (Oluo doesn't use the word "fragility" in her essay. She doesn't have to. It's on full display as she describes her experiences with white "allies.")

• The Racial Contract, by Charles W. Mills, LitCharts, Jan. 17, 2021.

• Six Freedoms Black People Do Not Have Under a White Supremacy, by Johnny Silvercloud, Medium.com, May 9, 2020. (TW: Two photos of lynchings are buried in the middle of this article. According to the author, the freedoms denied to Black Americans are: freedom of emotion, freedom of space, freedom of memory, freedom of healing, freedom of self-defense, and the freedom to protect the other five. As he explains each of these freedoms — which white Americans take so much for granted that we don't even name them — the difference between Black America and white America becomes deeply, painfully clear. If you're still having trouble grasping the concept of "white privilege" — and trust me, you wouldn't be the only one — this article provides an excellent gateway to understanding.)

• How I Learned to Connect My Story with the Story of White Supremacy Lessons learned from creating an anti-racism workshop., by Josh Singer, The Good Men Project, Jun. 19, 2019.

• Whitewashed: Unmasking the World of Whiteness, uploaded Mar. 16, 2013 to the Mark Patrick George channel on YouTube. (White people explore the extent of their privilege, biases, and prejudice. The interviews are introspective, frank, and thought-provoking.)

• White Privilege, Stephanie Chrismon, Medium.com, May 25, 2022. ("It’s not about the stuff. It's about the obstacles.")

• No, We Won’t Calm Down – Tone Policing Is Just Another Way to Protect Privilege, by Robert Hugs, Everyday Feminism, Dec. 7, 2015.

• Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”, Audre Lorde's keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Storrs, Connecticut, June 1981. (In this complex work, Lorde speaks of the anger felt by Black women, and the reaction of white women to that anger.)

• White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh, reprinted from the Winter 1990 issue of Independent School. (This is an excellent list of 50 ways in which white people experience privilege in their everyday lives.)

  • McIntosh's essay is followed by "I Can Fix it! Part 1: White People,", an excerpt from a longer article by damali ayo. This is a five-step plan of practical steps for changing our own approaches to race and racism, plus a reading list. *(ayo's longer article, includes "Part 2: People of Color", a parallel plan of action for people of color. While less extensive than Part 1, Part 2 provides white readers with a worthwhile view from the other side.

  • In the last section of this article, Robert Jenson addresses "The Fears of White People." (This is an excerpt from his book, "The Fears of White People," City Lights, San Francisco, CA, 2005.)

• Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person, by Gina Crosley-Corcoran, Huffington Post, May 8, 2014.

• White Privilege, Explained in One Simple Comic,
  by Melissa A. Fabello, Everyday Feminism, Sept. 21, 2014.

• "Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is," posted by John Scalzi, May 15, 2012, in his blog, "Whatever: Early Days of a Better Nation."

  •  “Lowest Difficulty Setting” Follow-Up, by John Scalzi, May 17, 2012, "Whatever: Early Days of a Better Nation." (This is Scalzi's witty, sardonic responses to the indignant straight white males who commented on his first post.)

  • Final Notes For “Lowest Difficulty Setting”, by John Scalzi, May 23, 2012, "Whatever: Early Days of a Better Nation."

• Privilege/Class/Social Inequalities Explained in a $100 Race, a video demonstration. Posted Oct. 14, 2017 on YouTube.

• White Privilege Is Real. I Know. I Lost Mine After 9/11., by Dean Obeidallah, Yahoo, Sept. 11, 2020.

• White People Are Cashing In On The Black Struggle for Equality, by Anthony Quinones, Black Enterprise, Sept. 24, 2020.

• Eight Things Every White Person Should Know About White Privilege, by Sally Kohn, The Daily Beast, Jul. 12, 2017.

• Dear Fellow White People: White privilege is a thing. And Rio was the perfect example, by Kevin Van Valkenburg, Andscape, Aug. 23, 2016.

• The Function of Fragility- Challenging Our Own Role in Maintaining Racial Hierarchies, a podcast by Jennifer Brown, Dec. 14, 2018.

• Margaret Cho: ‘White Fragility Is Annoying.’, a conversation about race jokes, with Stephen Colbert, by Tasbeeh Herwees, Nov. 3, 2015.

• On white privilege in the entertainment industry: Joaquin Phoenix's acceptance speech at the BAFTA Film Awards

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Return to Part 3 - On being white in today's America.

Return to the main index: On microaggressions, privilege, and systemic racism: A resource for white people.

Originally posted Apr. 12, 2023.