Power and Privilege: An Evening with Robin DiAngelo

3 Robin DiAngelo speaks to University of Minnesota students about why it is so difficult to discuss racism with white people. BY NINA RAEMONT

“It’s the land of 10,000 wokes,” author and trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem called the state of Minnesota while speaking with Robin DiAngelo in front of a University of Minnesota audience. But what does it mean to be “woke,” especially as a white progressive, if you are unable to address the systemic problems that you contribute to? That was what Robin DiAngelo, whose newest book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” recently garnered the attention of the New York Times bestsellers list, was about to unpack. On Tuesday, Feb. 6, the Northrop auditorium filled with students and staff alike. They all awaited the arrival of DiAngelo, a University of Washington affiliate professor, who, after 20 years of orchestrating diversity and equity training, realized that white people are especially terrible at talking about racism. Hosted by the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence, the event sold out every available seat within the 2,700 seat auditorium and was intended to touch upon privilege, racism, and power within American society.

Too much of the discussion of race, for white individuals, is centered upon whether or not they themselves are racist, instead of acknowledging their own privileges, which allow these implicit biases they have to reproduce within society. This causes white fragility: White people are not able to speak about these issues that they rightfully contribute to. As someone who has studied critical discourse and how whiteness is reproduced into everyday life, DiAngelo made a deliberate point to emphasize to the audience that racism is ingrained within our culture. Once we stop debating the semantics of this issue and begin to accept these ideas, we will finally reach a point in the conversation where critical thinking and reflection can take place. Within the first five minutes on stage, DiAngelo emphasized her own whiteness, making it clear that she will never understand racism to the extent that someone who experiences this oppression on a day to day basis does. After all, it is quite a privilege to learn about racism rather than experience it. But, if she didn’t use her platform to discuss these issues, DiAngelo declared, she would be doing a moral injustice to anyone whose voice is not heard.

DiAngelo began to touch upon our white dominant society by showing statistics of those who make the decisions within America. The unsurprising yet unsettling majority of whom are white—in fact, 96% white. The media we consume, the decisions our country makes for us, the news that is reported to us, are dictated by an overrepresented majority that fails to consider perspectives other than their own. But it isn’t just the statistics of today; it is also the hundreds of years of oppression that black people faced in America. It’s the fact that black people were considered three-fifths of a person until 92 years after the Constitution was written. And because of that, DiAngelo says, we live in a world that is teeming with race. To deny these racist biases because we are not ready to address the real issue in America is an injustice to anyone who has experienced it.

The audience seemed receptive to her presentation. There were many times when she would ask the people of color in the room questions that supported her argument. For example, she asked, “Could racists work three cubicles down from you? Even if they think they’re

not racist?” And a man responded, “Oh, absolutely!” Laughs filled the auditorium.

She tackled these difficult subjects with hard facts that were alleviated with humor. Through the deliverance of witty digs at the “woke” white people in the room, she intentionally tried to alleviate some of the cognitive dissonance that the white half of the audience felt. It was a way to reflect upon these terrible issues marginalized groups in America face while shedding light on the absurdity of it all with humorous digs and criticism. This allowed everyone to step back and see our society as it is.

DiAngelo not only hoped to spread awareness but also incite change. She educated those who needed to be educated and reminded those who experience racism that they are not alone. These discussions need to frequently occur; we need to call out our behaviors and discuss the flaws of our own biases. After all, what good does attending political marches do if the people participating don’t realize they’re a part of the problem?