Summary

In Chapter 7, “Nice White People” (99), Brown recalls an incident in which she was on a sailing trip with work colleagues. Afterward, they went into a restaurant and a white colleague asked if she was uncomfortable because she was the only Black person there. She uses this story to point out that there are many white people who believe that because they are “nice” they cannot possibly be racist. In other instances, a white person who has said or done something racist will offer what Brown calls the “Relational Defense” (102), claiming they cannot possibly be racist because they have a friend, spouse, or child who is non-white. She recalls an incident in which she was asked to help with a situation where a white volunteer at a food bank made racist comments about a Black shopper. The director of the food bank thought the...