White people often live and work in racially insular social environments. This insulation builds their expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering their stamina for enduring racial stress. Dr. DiAngelo terms this lack of racial stamina “White Fragility.” White Fragility is a state in which even a minimal challenge to the white position becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive responses. These responses function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and maintain white control in relationships and institutions.

In this keynote address, Dr. DiAngelo will provide insight valuable to ombuds committed to helping their organizations be just, fair, and healthy places for all. It includes an overview of the socialization that inculcates white fragility and provide the perspectives and skills needed for white people to build their racial stamina and develop more equitable racial practices. This session may also benefit people of color who are underrepresented in an organization and/or wonder how white colleagues or clients manage to remain unaware and why they are so often so difficult to talk to about racism.

Dr. Robin DiAngelo is Affiliate Associate Faculty of Education at the University of Washington. Her area of research is in Whiteness Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis. She 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. She has numerous publications and books. Her book Is Everybody Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Critical Social Justice Education, (co-written with Özlem Sensoy) received both the American Educational Studies Association Critics Choice Book Award (2012) and the Society of Professors of Education Book Award (2018). In 2011 she coined the term White Fragility in an academic article which has influenced the national dialogue on race. Her book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism was released in June of 2018 and debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List. In addition to her academic work, Dr. DiAngelo has been a consultant and trainer for over 20 years on issues of racial and social justice. She has worked with a wide-range of organizations including private, non-profit, and governmental.