‘White Fragility’ author to visit Northwest Aug. 24

The author of New York Times Bestseller “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” will visit Northwest Missouri State University this month to discuss the book and offer strategies to address white fragility.  

The lecture featuring Dr. Robin DiAngelo, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24, in the Charles Johnson Theater at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building. It will include a question-and-answer session moderated by Dr. Justin Mallett, the assistant vice president of diversity and inclusion at Northwest. Attendees also will have an opportunity to submit questions prior to the presentation.

“Dr. DiAngelo is a person who many in our community have come to know through reading ‘White Fragility,’” Mallett said, noting the book was featured as part of Northwest’s Bearcat Diversity Book Club. “Dr. DiAngelo coming to our campus to provide tips and strategies on addressing fragility within ourselves and how to be transformative allies – not only on campus but within the local community – is something that is beneficial to the entire Maryville community and northwest Missouri region.”

DiAngelo is an affiliate associate professor of education at the University of Washington, where she researches whiteness studies and critical discourse analysis, tracing how whiteness is reproduced in everyday narratives. She also is a two-time winner of the Student’s Choice Award for Educator of the Year at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work.

In 2011, she coined the term “white fragility” in an academic article that has influenced the international dialogue on race. Her book, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” was released in 2018 and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List, where it remained for more than three years while it has been translated into 12 languages. Her follow-up book, “Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm,” was released in 2021.

Her other books include “Is Everybody Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Critical Social Justice Education,” co-written with Özlem Sensoy, which received both the American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Book Award in 2012 and the Society of Professors of Education Book Award in 2018. She also has been featured by The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NPR, PBS and The BBC.​

In addition to her academic work, DiAngelo has worked for more than 20 years as a consultant, educator and facilitator on issues of racial and social justice. She has worked with a range of private, non-profit and government organizations.

For more information about DiAngelo, visit www.robindiangelo.com.