Top 100 Robin DiAngelo Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “I am often asked if I think the younger generation is less racist. No, I don’t. In some ways, racism’s adaptations over time are more sinister than concrete rules such as Jim Crow.”

— Robin DiAngelo

52. “Individual whites may be “against” racism, but they still benefit from a system that privileges whites as a group.”

— Robin DiAngelo

53. “Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing ideologies of individualism and meritocracy. They also do whites a disservice by obscuring the white allies behind the scenes who worked hard and long to open the field. These allies could serve as much-needed role models for other whites.”

— Robin DiAngelo

54. “Because it benefits us not to do so, we have a very limited understanding of racism.”

— Robin DiAngelo

55. “Denying that race matters is irrational in the face of segregation and all of the other forms of obvious racial inequity in society. It is even more irrational to believe that it is whites who are at the receiving end of discrimination. Maintaining this denial of reality takes tremendous emotional and psychic energy.”

— Robin DiAngelo

56. “The incomes of the poorest 10 percent of people increased by less than three dollars a year between 1988 and 2011, while the incomes of the richest 1 percent increased 182 times as much.”

— Robin DiAngelo

57. “Unfortunately, aversive racism only protects racism, because we can’t challenge our racial filters if we can’t consider the possibility that we have them. Of course, some whites explicitly avow racism. We might consider these whites actually more aware of, and honest about, their biases than those of us who consider ourselves open-minded yet who have rarely thought critically about the biases we inevitably hold or how we may be expressing them.”

— Robin DiAngelo

58. “The beneficiaries of slavery, segregation, and mass incarceration have produced racist ideas of Black people being best suited for or deserving of the confines of slavery, segregation, or the jail cell. Consumers of these racist ideas have been led to believe there is something wrong with Black people, and not the policies that have enslaved, oppressed, and confined so many Black people.”

— Robin DiAngelo

59. “For example, although we are taught that women were granted suffrage in 1920, we ignore the fact that it was white women who received full access or that it was white men who granted it. Not until the 1960s, through the Voting Rights Act, were all women – regardless of race – granted full access to suffrage. Naming who has access and who doesn’t guides our efforts in challenging injustice.”

— Robin DiAngelo

60. “The simplistic idea that racism is limited to individual intentional acts committed by unkind people is at the root of virtually all white defensiveness on this topic.”

— Robin DiAngelo

61. “I take this to mean that whites can only be white if someone is not white – if someone is the opposite of white. White is a false identity, an identity of false superiority.”

— Robin DiAngelo

62. “One line of King’s speech in particular – that one day he might be judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin – was seized upon by the white public because the words were seen to provide a simple and immediate solution to racial tensions: pretend that we don’t see race, and racism will end. Color blindness was now promoted as the remedy for racism, with white people insisting that they didn’t see race or, if they did, that it had no meaning to them.”

— Robin DiAngelo

63. “In the US, over the last thirty years, the growth in the incomes of the bottom 50 percent has been zero, whereas incomes of the top 1 percent have grown by 300 percent.”

— Robin DiAngelo

64. “To be born into, to go to school, to study, to learn, to play, to worship, to love, to work and to die in segregation and not have one single person who loved, mentored or guided me convey that there was any loss.”

— Robin DiAngelo

65. “We don’t have to be aware of racism in order for it to exist.”

— Robin DiAngelo

66. “People just need to be taught to respect one another, and that begins in the home.”

— Robin DiAngelo

67. “Prejudice is foundational to understanding white fragility because suggesting that white people have racial prejudice is perceived as saying that we are bad and should be ashamed. We then feel the need to defend our character rather than explore the inevitable racial prejudices we have absorbed so that we might change them. In this way, our misunderstanding about what prejudice is protects it.”

— Robin DiAngelo

68. “Whites also produce and reinforce the dominant narratives of society – such as individualism and meritocracy – and use these narratives to explain the positions of other racial groups. These narratives allow us to congratulate ourselves on our success within the institutions of society and blame others for their lack of success.”

— Robin DiAngelo

69. “I strive to be “less white.” To be less white is to be less racially oppressive. This requires me to be more racially aware, to be better educated about racism, and to continually challenge racial certitude and arrogance. To be less white is to be open to, interested in, and compassionate toward the racial realities of people of color.”

— Robin DiAngelo

70. “Responding with strong emotions to injustice is, of course, rational. But the passive-aggressive, conflict-avoiding culture of niceness, along with the ever-looming threat of triggering white fragility, puts enormous pressure on activists of color not to show emotions that make white people uncomfortable.”

— Robin DiAngelo

71. “While Robinson was certainly an amazing baseball player, this story line depicts him as racially special, a black man who broke the color line himself. The subtext is that Robinson finally had what it took to play with whites, as if no black athlete before him was strong enough to compete at that level. Imagine if instead, the story went something like this: “Jackie Robinson, the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.”

— Robin DiAngelo

72. “Individualism is a deeply imbedded narrative in Western cultures, and it plays a particularly important role in the maintenance of white supremacy.”

— Robin DiAngelo

73. “Most of us only teach our children not to admit to prejudice. A parent training a child not to say certain things that are overtly racist is teaching the child self-censorship rather than how to examine the deeply embedded racial messages we all absorb. Ideally, we would teach our children how to recognize and challenge prejudice, rather than deny it.”

— Robin DiAngelo

74. “Interrupting racism takes courage and intentionality; the interruption is by definition not passive or complacent. So in answer to the question “Where do we go from here?,” I offer that we must never consider ourselves finished with our learning.”

— Robin DiAngelo

75. “As Ta-Nehisi Coates states, “But race is the child of racism, not the father.”6 He means that first we exploited people for their resources, not according to how they looked. Exploitation came first, and then the ideology of unequal races to justify this exploitation followed.”

— Robin DiAngelo

76. “This defensiveness is rooted in the false but widespread belief that racial discrimination can only be intentional. Our lack of understanding about implicit bias leads to aversive racism.”

— Robin DiAngelo

77. “The binary makes complicity with racism and being a good person mutually exclusive.”

— Robin DiAngelo

78. “When ideologies such as color blindness, meritocracy, and individualism are challenged, intense emotional reactions are common.”

— Robin DiAngelo

79. “The dimensions of racism benefiting white people are usually invisible to whites. We are unaware of, or do not acknowledge, the meaning of race and its impact on our own lives. Thus we do not recognize or admit to white privilege and the norms that produce and maintain it.”

— Robin DiAngelo

80. “Imagine if instead, the story went something like this: “Jackie Robinson, the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.”

— Robin DiAngelo

81. “Rather than use what you see as unique about yourself as an exemption from further examination, a more fruitful approach would be to ask yourself, “I am white and I have had X experience. How did X shape me as a result of also being white?” Setting aside your sense of uniqueness is a critical skill that will allow you to see the big picture of the society in which we live; individualism will not.”

— Robin DiAngelo

82. “The antidote to guilt is action.”

— Robin DiAngelo

83. “People who claim not to be prejudiced are demonstrating a profound lack of self-awareness. Ironically, they are also demonstrating the power of socialization – we have all been taught in schools, through movies, and from family members, teachers, and clergy that it is important not to be prejudiced. Unfortunately, the prevailing belief that prejudice is bad causes us to deny its unavoidable reality.”

— Robin DiAngelo

84. “As white progressives, the participants expected to be validated in their wokeness, not called in and exposed.”

— Robin DiAngelo

85. “Since my learning will never be finished, neither will the need to hold me accountable.”

— Robin DiAngelo

86. “If you believe that you are being told you are a bad person, all your energy is likely to go toward denying this possibility and invalidating the messenger rather than trying to understand why what you’ve said or done is hurtful.”

— Robin DiAngelo

87. “The poor and working classes, if united across race, could be a powerful force. But racial divisions have served to keep them from organizing against the owning class who profits from their labor.”

— Robin DiAngelo

88. “Defaulting to whatever engagement feels most comfortable is not guided by critical thinking and is not anti-racist.”

— Robin DiAngelo

89. “Unfortunately, racism is not typically viewed as a deeply complex issue that mainstream culture does not prepare white people to engage critically with and thus requires ongoing study and engagement by white people to gain some measure of expertise. When it comes to racism, white people tend to hold up all opinions as equally valid.”

— Robin DiAngelo

90. “The identities of those sitting at the tables of power in this country have remained remarkably similar: white, male, middle- and upper-class, able-bodied. Acknowledging this fact may be dismissed as political correctness, but it is still a fact. The decisions made at those tables affect the lives of those not at the tables. Exclusion by those at the table doesn’t depend on willful intent; we don’t have to intend to exclude for the results of our actions to be exclusion.”

— Robin DiAngelo

91. “Whom exactly does the culture of niceness serve? I suppose it serves the people for whom life is going well, the people in power. But where does this leave less empowered individuals and populations with legitimate complaints? Speaking truth to power too often results in feelings of judgment and anger at the complainer.”

— Robin DiAngelo

92. “I ask, “How does this claim function in the conversation?” If we apply this question to these two sets of narratives, one color-blind and the other color-celebrate, we see that all of these claims ultimately function in a similar way; they all exempt the person from any responsibility for or participation in the problem.”

— Robin DiAngelo

93. “Unfortunately, the prevailing belief that prejudice is bad causes us to deny its unavoidable reality.”

— Robin DiAngelo

94. “We might ask ourselves why we think the best response to racial inequality is niceness.”

— Robin DiAngelo

95. “Whiteness embodies Charles Baudelaire’s admonition that “the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist.”

— Robin DiAngelo

96. “Not naming the groups that face barriers only serves those who already have access; the assumption is that the access enjoyed by the controlling group is universal.”

— Robin DiAngelo

97. “Imagine if instead, the story went something like this: “Jackie Robinson, the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This version makes a critical distinction because no matter how fantastic a player Robinson was, he simply could not play in the major leagues if whites – who controlled the institution – did not allow it. Were he to walk onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him.”

— Robin DiAngelo

98. “As a white person, I can openly and unabashedly reminisce about “the good old days.” Romanticized recollections of the past and calls for a return to former ways are a function of white privilege, which manifests itself in the ability to remain oblivious to our racial history.”

— Robin DiAngelo

99. “Some of the most intense white fragility erupts regularly on progressive Facebook groups such as Pantsuit Nation when white women are challenged racially.”

— Robin DiAngelo

100. “But because they see themselves as progressive in terms of racism, they do not see anti-racism efforts as directed at them; they “already know all this” and are not part of the problem. Thus, they may not involve themselves in anti-racist efforts, but if they do, they can be rather self-righteous as they point out racism in everyone other than themselves.”

— Robin DiAngelo