'All White People Are Invested In And Collude With Racism,' Says Author of MEA Book Club Selection

The Michigan Education Association’s Center for Leadership & Learning Book Studies currently lists three book recommendations for participants to choose from: “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo, “How to Be an Anti-Racist” by Ibram X. Kendi, and “Safe is Not Enough – Better Schools for LGBTQ Students” by Michael Sadowski.

“White Fragility” and “How to Be an Anti-Racist” were on The New York Times best-sellers list.

In her book, White Fragility, DiAngelo states that white supremacy is “the bedrock of our society and institutions.” She notes, “All white people are invested in and collude with racism,” and “socialized into a deeply internalized sense of superiority that we either are unaware of or can never admit to ourselves, we become highly fragile in conversations about race.”

Kendi argues in “How to Be an Anti-Racist” that there’s no such thing as not being racist, and inaction is a form of racism. In the opening of his book he states, “There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.”

In “Safe is Not Enough – Better Schools for LGBTQ Students” Sadowski describes ways to integrate LGBTQ themes into school curriculum and culture.