Summary

The author begins her book by stating that white people do not see themselves as defined by race, though we are. She writes that being defined by one's race is a common trigger of white fragility. She states that white people by definition have uninformed, ignorant opinions about racism unless they have devoted a great deal of study to the matter because nothing in the mainstream American culture gives us access to this type of training. Instead, people go through school and even hold leadership positions without any training about racism.

She examines what happens when we try to speak about racism. White fragility emerges, and social forces that keep the hierarchy of our society in place are too powerful to overcome. These forces include the ideas of meritocracy and individualism, as well as widespread segregation, and other forces. The process of understanding racism...