A review by bootman
Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin DiAngelo

5.0

I bought this book on launch day and binged it within 24 hours. Since reading her first book White Fragility and enjoying it, I wanted to better understand why she’s so polarizing. Again, Robin brings up some great observations, but I think I understand why she upsets so many people. There’s far too much to write in this brief review, but although Robin makes many valid points, the primary issue I see is that she puts white people in a lose-lose scenario where it’s impossible to not be racist. Regardless of if she believes that, I think that’s the wrong way to go about educating people because they feel hopeless and don’t even want to try. If I’m being honest, there’s not much different between this book and the last book aside from personal experiences she’s had since the previous book. She tries to focus more on the aspect of progressive white people being more problematic than they realize, but personally, I gathered that from the first book.

Is it worth your time? If you read her last book, maybe you’ll get something new from this one. But if you’re someone who is highly critical of Robin’s work, I personally don’t think you’re allowed to criticize it unless you read it cover to cover.

I like writing short book reviews with my overall thoughts, but if you’re interested in honest, nuanced review of the book, here’s the link: https://www.therewiredsoul.com/blog/robin-diangelo-nice-racism-review