The Book Nook, by Kat Wahl

Nice Racism, Robin Di’Angelo (2021)

The first thing anyone should know about this book before they pick it up is that it is a challenging read. It is worth adding that it is only challenging if you are willing to put your preconceived ideas about how race does or does not influence your life and behaviors aside, and allow the author’s well-informed and deeply studied advice reframe that thinking. The main premise is that though white people are not racialized, our race does affect who we are and how we move through the world, and when we ignore or are unaware of that fact, we can easily and often unknowingly subject people of color to racial harm. No one raised in our society is free of racism, it is written deeply in our patterns of socialization. Being actively anti-racist does not mean that I could not possibly behave badly in regards to a person of color based on race. Having grown up in the same kind of mostly segregated community that many white people do, I felt like I learned SO MUCH in reading this book. 

I would recommend this book to readers who are interested in doing a little soul-searching, and particularly to anyone who read and enjoyed the author’s precious book White Fragility.

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Where to find this book: Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm: DiAngelo, Dr. Robin: 9780807074121: Amazon.com: Books