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Robin DiAngelo, author of the new book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” sits down with Community Equity Partners CEO Erin Trent Johnson and Mic Senior Writer Aaron Morrison to discuss one of the most daunting barriers to true racial equality.
In this groundbreaking and timely book, antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of "white fragility". Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
Robin DiAngelo received her PhD in Multicultural Education from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2004. She earned tenure at Westfield State University, where she has taught courses in Multicultural Teaching, Inter-group Dialogue Facilitation, Cultural Diversity & Social Justice, and Anti-Racist Education. Her work on White Fragility has been featured or cited in Salon, NPR, Slate, Alternet, the Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Seattle Times. For over 20 years, DiAngelo has been a consultant and trainer on issues of racial and social justice, working with a wide-range of organizations including private, non-profit, and governmental. She was recently appointed to co-design the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative Anti-Racism training (with Darlene Flynn).
Erin Trent Johnson is the CEO and principal coach, facilitator, and consultant for Community Equity Partners (CEP) and serves as the Senior Advisor for The Equity Lab. Erin works with organizations in the education, non-profit, government, and tech arenas that are committed to creating equitable and inclusive practices. Erin’s approach to coaching and leadership development helps organization leaders notice, name and disrupt systemic barriers to equity and inclusion within themselves and their organizations. As a coach and facilitator, Erin provides a dynamic learning experience for leaders that fosters personal and professional growth, transforms organizational culture and leads to community impact. Erin has nearly fifteen years of experience and leadership in education, community organizing and community development which has prepared her to support leaders in solving their own problems of equity and community building. "Money is a political construct, a construct of community, a construct of a society, that must be political. And if we do not control this, by definition, political force, because money is a force—it makes the world go round, as we know—if this political force it not controlled democratically, then we do not live in a democracy."
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece at the height of Europe's debt crisis, was at the Appel Salon as part of the TPL's #OnCivilSociety series, to talk about his new book "Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism",
In conversation with Ana Serrano, Chair of the Open Democracy Project. 
Join Black feminist, academic, author, and co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective Dr. Brittney Cooper, along with writer, activist, and editor Darnell L. Moore, as they break down the ways their work informs, challenges, and shapes our understanding of the current political situation. Following the tradition of black literary salons, our guests will interrogate each other’s work and engage in a lively discussion on the intersection of race and gender in their activism; the importance of translating theory into accessible ideas that inspire collective change; and how we can use our freedom, power, and rage to change the world.
Dr. Brittney Cooper writes a popular monthly column on race, gender and politics for Cosmopolitan, and is the author of Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower. A professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University, she co-founded the Crunk Feminist Collective. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, Ebony.com, and The Root.com, among others.
Darnell L. Moore is an editor-at-large at CASSIUS (Urban One), a columnist at LogoTV.com and NewNextNow.com, and a contributor at Mic. He writes regularly for Ebony, Advocate, Vice, and Guardian. Moore is a writer-in-residence at the Center of African American Religion, Sexual Politics, and Social Justice at Columbia University, has taught at NYU, Rutgers, Fordham, and Vassar, and was trained at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He divides his time between Brooklyn and Atlanta. Wading through propaganda and subterfuge in eclectic contexts, from science and religion, to comedy and law, Rex Sorgatz has explored it all. He has sifted through various conspiracy theories, the complex construct of internet and popular culture, and perplexing psychological phenomena, gathering them together in one humorous collection. His book covers deliriously diverse subjects including auto-tune, Chilean sea bass, false flag operations, kayfabe, laugh tracks, Rachel Dolezal, and more.
Rex Sorgatz is a writer and technologist based in NYC whose reflections on the intersection of media, technology and culture have appeared in New York Magazine, Wired, and Backchannel.
