Nice Racism

Introduction

1
What Is a Nice Racist?

2
Why It’s OK to Generalize About White People

3
There Is No Choir

4
What’s Wrong with Niceness?

5
The Moves of White Progressives

6
Spiritual, Not Religious

7
Let’s Talk About Shame

8
What About My Trauma?

9
We Aren’t Actually That Nice

10
How White People Who Experience Other Oppressions Can Still Be Racist, or “But I’m a Minority Myself!”

11
How Do You Make a White Progressive a Better Racist?

12
Niceness Is Not Courageous: How to Align Your Professed Values with Your Actual Practice

Study Guide
Acknowledgments
Notes

Dr. Robin DiAngelo is an affiliate associate professor of education at the University of Washington. She has been a consultant, educator, and facilitator on issues of racial and social justice for more than twenty-five years. She is the author or coauthor of several books, including the number-one New York Times bestseller White Fragility. Her work has been praised by Ibram X. Kendi, Michael Eric Dyson, Claudia Rankine, and Jonathan Capehart, among others. Find her online at robindiangelo.com.

"A powerful new book from the author of White Fragility reveals why profound racism is often found in supposedly liberal spaces" The Guardian

A pointed reminder that good intentions aren t enough to break the cycle of racism.
Kirkus Reviews

A fierce critique of the culture of niceness that prevents the hard work of dismantling racism . . . [DiAngelo] dismantles unconscious biases with precision. Readers will feel compelled to hold themselves more accountable.
Publishers Weekly

With the hard-earned insights that come from years of study and leading workshops on racism, Robin DiAngelo captures the strategies often used by well-intentioned white people to avoid the self-examination needed to confront their own unrecognized racism. If you want to get beyond feeling defensive and increase your capacity for effective anti-racist action, do yourself a favor and read this book!
Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race

In this illuminating follow-up to White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo integrates sharp insight, personal vulnerability, and compassionate guidance with the keen eye of an insider. Focusing specifically on the more subtle patterns of white progressives, her work continues to be invaluable to the project of ending white supremacy.
Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

Personal transformation is an act of anti-racism, and DiAngelo has just given progressive white America the field guide.
Michael Eric Dyson, author of Long Time Coming

Spectacular! With the precision of a social scientist, Robin DiAngelo dissects and puts under the microscope seemingly benign white moves including her own in ways that make undeniable how each functions to recalibrate white dominance and comfort again and again. A critical tool for white progressives wanting to know better so we can