The purpose of this book seems to be helping corporations offload yet more burdens onto their workers, who are already overworked and underpaid. Much like the pseudo-wokeness of twitter and mass media functions to offload responsibility for the problems of our society onto individuals, who are already confused, miserable, and struggling. Younger generations are further left than any previous ones? Well, this is how the establishment wants to neutralize that. Make "left-wing politics" into a doctrine of self-discipline and suspicion toward your fellow everyday people.

I can’t believe he’s gone😭😭😭😢😭 Rest In Peace old friend . You’re legacy will live on.

Notice how she ignores institutional racism including corporate America's racist actions. It's all about how individual employees are racist on a personal level (and that needs to be documented for HR).

I'm having this weird realization that I had been seriously missing out on Micheal's perspective before he passed. Yeah, I watched a little TMBS and MR here and there when he was dunking on Rubin or whatever, but I'm slowly realizing -- to my dismay, frankly -- that his serious work was straight-up profound. I started reading about White Fragility today and its arguments, then watched this and was like, "This is it exactly. Michael saw the problem in high definition."

Everything HR does is in service to helping companies and the overprivileged and harming the workers and the underprivileged.

This is the ‘clean your room’ version of milk toast activism

I just went through a training with the county I work for in part based on this book; at one point one of the speakers/trainers admitted the reason we are doing this is so we don't get sued by former employees or clients. The training was for shelter workers who earned little more than minimum wage and were mostly minorities, the people doing the training were making over 60K a year and talking to us about equity, the irony was painful to watch.

Man, I want him alive right now. He had such an insightful, thoughtful perspective on everything. 2020 really is the worst year, hands down.

It's a pretty bad book in general. On a very basic level, none of the social critique is particularly off the mark in my view. The problem is the same as it is with all liberal critique which is it almost completely ignores class as it intersects with race and the fact that bigotry and capitalism are inextricably linked. It's similar to how, as Angela Davis has pointed out, there is a huge current of liberal feminists who rally to "break the glass ceiling" which by definition means that they support the ruthless hierarchies and general structure of capitalist society. If you search for the term "intersectionality", you have to sift through a lot of mainstream liberal ideology to find a chart that even has "class" on it, which is completely absurd, since it's the single most significant axis of oppression by far. Liberals, in essence, have stolen intersectionality, which is why I think it gets so maligned even in leftist circles, even though fundamentally it's a good idea. If you explain the basic idea to people on the left without using the word, they generally don't take much of an issue with it. It's not the same thing as identity politics based around adopted identities at all, it's based around observations of how people are categorized and segregated in society already. The reason so many people associate it with individualist liberal identity politics is because liberals who have co-opted it have no answer to the fundamental problems of capitalism, they can only get increasingly fervent in their beliefs that all of society's ills are down to individuals. Many of them seem to be very firm their belief that bigots are predestined from birth to be evil, to be "the bad guy", to be the villains of liberal mythology. As much as we all hate to say it, we genuinely have waaaay more in common with the average Trump fanatic and even the alt right than we do with executives like Jeff Bezos or hedge fund managers. Anyone who says we can achieve any semblance of equality in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc. within capitalism is dangerously wrong. To point out that bigotry is a societal ill not a personal failing of individuals is not to excuse it, but only when it's acknowledged as such can we effectively do something about it. It's ironic to me that a group so often considered "postmodernist" by detractors of liberalism (and of postmodern thought) still in general has such a basic "good vs. evil" outlook when it comes to politics.

The HR-ification of social problems.

I was recommended this book by my psychiatrist after we briefly talked about the current racial tensions in my last appointment. She admitted she had not read it.

A proper title for this book should be "Marketing Myself Multiculturally".

This phenomenon feels like a bad case of, What Black People Want (the Racial Inequality Edition). I'm sorry, this book has shifted the conversation away from racial justice to who's more woke and let's talk about what makes white folks comfortable. Let's focus on the task at hand.

I haven't read the book so I can't really agree or disagree with your analysis. But what what you said about it reminded me of a term in the self-help/entrepreneurial sphere called "action faking," which describes engaging in surface level busywork to _feel_ as though you're productive rather than doing the necessary tasks to advance a goal. I'd say things like "spreading awareness" and "thoughts and prayers" fall into that category.

"Some of the Dodgers who swore they would never play with a black man had a change of mind when they realized I was a good ballplayer who could be helpful in their earning a few thousand more dollars in World Series money. After the initial resistance to me had been crushed, my teammates started to give me tips on how to improve my game. They hadn’t changed because they liked me any better, they had changed because I could help fill their wallets." Jackie Robinson

So much still to learn from such a great mind, very sorry he’s gone..

Not only is the book wrong, people are reading it instead of a number of other great books.

Some of the books Brooks recommended as deserving of more attention than the corporate consultant’s: “Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral” by Firoze Manji and Bill Fletcher “Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life” by Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields Anything by Frantz Fanon (“The Wretched of the Earth”, “Black Skin, White Masks”) Speeches and writings by Malcolm X Also, of course anything by Adolph Reed Jr. (eg. “Stirrings In The Jug: Black Politics in the Post-Segregation Era” or “Class Notes: Posing as Politics and other Thoughts on the American Scene”) “Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism” by Toure Reed

Matt Taibbi wrote a scathing takedown of this book.

Comfortably insulated white people love this book. I work in a book store, the professor, the city council person, the people who are around mostly other comfortably employed, comfortably insured white people that sometimes deal with the unwashed masses (working class, students, voters... Etc) tout this book like a token black friend.

I’m here because Chadwick just died. I thought of all the most important people to me that died this year. Michael being one of them. Take care of yourself if you’re reading this.

Damn I miss you. Glad I can still plug in and hear you, Michael. Its still crazy here. But your presence has helped me laugh and keep going, and the people you introduced me to are a lifeline.

It's politicized original sin dogma - a huge guilt trip.

Nothing sells better to The Comfortable than anything that lets them off the hook for actually doing something to resolve a problem by permitting them to wallow in guilt about it.

When I first heard her talk, I went, yeah. Then after I listened to her during a talk interview, I went, this lady doesn’t really get it. All surface polish and shine. No real depth.

"you can never do anything about it" - except make money off of it.

RIP Michael.... Hanging out with the greats like Tupac and Kobe...

It's very nice to see a Leftist critique of this text as well as performative wokeness and superficial, identity-based diversity training. I think these things are, at best, distractions from putting together a comprehensive, policy-based agenda that addresses both economic and racial inequality, to which a class-based analysis is an essential ingredient. Excellent critique! I hope that more people on the Left start to at least question some of the orthodoxy that has become so prevalent in much of the contemporary U.S. Left. And yes, I happen to be a person of color.

Michael needs to chill out in the way he talks to his producers and cohorts on the show. Im sure he doesnt intend for this, but it always comes off as super condescending and rude every time he orders them to do something. Like just chill out my dude.

Man his point of view is so missed, but he was never alone then and we are not alone now

This powerpoint solves racism. You owe me $60000

There are SO MANY good books. Malcolm was always my favorite. I miss my library. My entire library that took 30 years to develop was destroyed in storage at my son's. But you guys are right...go to any book store and the books people should read are endless. Thank you

Michael, plz try not to interrupt David. Thanks, love the show :)

The entire ethos of the white PMC is “The only way I can be a good ally is to feel as much guilt as possible all the time.” Not really a winning message.

Thank you for this elevating conversation.

It would be nice if they could list all the book recommendations in the description. Is there a reddit page for this info out there?

The number of views that this video has vs the number of views Ben Shapiro's video has on the same subject is a clear illustration of how much work we really have to do

I’ve been telling fans of yours and Sam’s, and tyt, and Packman that this is the direction the movement is heading in for years. In return I was called a racist. Nice to see this side of youtube is learning.

Early in the primary process, a friend of mine started pointing out when the Dem politicians answered questions on Climate Change by recommending individual solutions instead of systemic solutions. Climate Change is a systemic problem and it's going to require a systemic solution. Anything less than that isn't going to to come anywhere close to even addressing the problem in a meaningful way. Since then, I've noticed that approach is absolutely true for the vast majority of the problems that we face as a society. So many of the problems we talk about regularly are systemic and societal issues. And we'll never come even close to addressing those issues until we actually take a systemic/societal approach to them. But that's kind of the key problem with US society and capitalism in general - there's such a huge focus on the individual that we often struggle to see the larger picture and that us individuals are part of the system. It's a way of thinking about things that just doesn't come easy to us. But we are starting to see a shift in the younger generations towards that sort of thinking. And I think the issue of Climate Change in particular is driving that shift - the vast majority of needed action for Climate Change requires a systemic change and can't be addressed on the individual level. And once you starting thinking about the ways to change the system, you've already shifted how you think about things to the point where you start recognizing the systemic problems elsewhere in our society - like systemic racism.

really liked the chapo ep on that book ;D

this may come off as a weird or bad ask, but my white (i only mention that thinking it might be pertinent to showing the circumstances of my dilemma) sister loves this book. does anyone have any recommendations for books to better explain what she might be getting from this book that i could recommend to her? thanks

It's pointlessness, poorly written by a fraud.

Anyone got a link to the Matt Taibbi article? I can't find it.

Damn straight, and lucid analysis of a complex issue.

Policy positions = substantive Social justice activism = trivial, performative

The solution to racism? Clean your room, and do not ask that others change. The racism was in your heart this whole time, and not a material reality. (this is facetious)

Does anyone know much about a program called the untraining? I have been thinking of doing trying to get into one of the groups.

Hmm, I don't agree with your stance. From the lectures and interviews I've seen of Robin Di Angelo online, she isn't presenting herself as providing a solution to everything. The impression I got is that she's trying to address the social dynamics that undermine cooperative relations between whites and African Americans and which impede progress toward dismantling racism in general. You talk about unions but ignor the fact that it's the white-dominated UNIONS that often promoted racism right alongside the owner class. But I have not read her book (yet) so I can't say definitively if you have a point. I will note that there are no Black people included in your discussion. And as a Black female, that gives me pause. In addition, since you can't take Di Angelo seriously, perhaps you could consider Carol Anderson's book "White Rage". She also looks at social dynamics that tend to undermine anti-racism efforts, e.g., the bombing of Black Wall Street. She is Black and hence can give you a view from within the Black community. Personally I found Di Angelo's lectures to be rather refreshing. She calls out the white behaviors that contribute to what I know I at least experience as racial fatigue. She doesn't let herself off the hook. She explains why these behaviors are ongoing and persistent. And of the interviews she's done that I have seen, she never positions her work as the main solution. She presents it as a contributing factor among many in the effort to dismantle racism. Perhaps also you should take a look at the work of Irami Osei-Frimpong. He's very much a proponent of changing procedures and policies to effect concrete changes in racial power relations. He approaches things from an institutional perspective in that he thinks that current institutions must be torn down and rebuilt in order to prevent the reproduction of white racism and racist behavior such as that exhibited by Amy Cooper. And he pulls no punches.

Good discussion, guys.

Thank you

I was going to read because it’s always on everyone’s recommended reading list, but now I’m going read it with this wonderful review of in mind, of how lazy an analysis can be with works like “ white Fragility”.

In addition to protection from Title VII type lawsuits these "anti discrimination" compulsory introspection festivals protect institutions of higher education (in particular) against Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) bench audits. A bench audit can cut off huge sums of money to federal contractors including, notably, universities.This mechanism helps enforce democratic party anti discrimination mechanisms (many of which look a lot like "White Fragility" constructs) within universities that are crucibles of politically acceptable race discourse which is predictably and necessarily non-critical with respect to class analysis.

This was a good discussion. Would love to see a part 2 that brings into the fold the work of Jane Elliott - her blue eye/brown eye experiment, and the psychological effects of being brought into a world in which certain individuals become prone to physical bias - using the very real (irrational and stupid) system of physical attributes which individuals have no control over (like skin color, or eye color), implemented to promote the belief in being better than or less than another on that basis... this, IMHO is a relevant aspect that has yet to rise to the forefront of public discussion.

damn i miss Michael. we lost a real leader.

Hasn’t this book been out for awhile? Is it because of the social climate that people are talking about it more?

She’s also a white woman herself. Like just sayin, if you’re going to read books about anti black racism you should listen to black people who have also written about this lmao

we really do live in a nightmare Kafka could've never dreamed of

Rip brother you will be missed so much by so many people

Between this article and Taibbi's piece, I kinda want to read this dumpster fire for myself. Please change my mind. Please.

Ugh. After watching this video the KZfaq algorithm promptly recommended Ben Shapiro's ant-White-Fragility video to me. What a mess. I'm not saying I think you guys are wrong. I read this book about a year ago it got me started down my "I don't wanna be an anti-SJW anymore" path. I also facilitate some workshops at work that are heavily influenced by the kind of stuff in this book. I'm trying hard not to just react negatively to what you're saying, though. Gonna have to have a think.

This just popped up on my feed. It feels strange to watch. We lost an important progressive voice. R.I.P.

The funniest part about this book is how many white outlets have given it energy while its roundly being ignored by black media outlets.

We need a follow up title, "Capitalist Fragility," about the defensiveness and denial of corporate lobbyists and CEOs who are continuing to "center themselves" and "make it all about them." as they demand that the government bail them out for Trillion$$$, even during a pandemic. The privilege! When will they say, "sorry!" for fighting against M4All, and against raising the minimum wage? I'd like to see Matt Taibbi, Matt Stoller, and Glenn Greenwald give them a sensitivity training.

Love that Sonics hat

9:26 yes, blaming the individual when it is the institutions, the framework, that needs fixing. It's the same with recycling and the environment. The packaging industry has successfully pushed the problem onto the individual to "correctly recycle", when the issue could be fixed by a change at the front end of the stream -- in the packaging. RIP Michael. Thanks for all you have done.

Best analysis that I can actually trust. Listening to a bunch of white Progressives telling me in vague terms why the book is bad, did not help me, even in the Taibbi interviews, because I wanted to hear Black voices. I was afraid this was more of the same, but you not only put a Black voice first, you detailed the problem other than "The author is a white corporatist." It is pretty hard, as a white person, to know which white voices to trust, let alone blindly. Thank you. Subscribing.

This book and corporate woke culture is literal cancer.

Focusing on the racism of individuals, takes the spot light off the systemic racism of institutions. It's original sin for secular society.

You might want to add the word "book" to the title. I'm seeing some very confused comments.

If you think of it as a form of mindfulness training for the individual, which can work hand in hand with systematic policy changes in the government businesses and organizations, (instead of making it about feeling guilty) it can be very helpful.

We need help from aliens.

Anybody else start thinking a little too much into what the Sam Harris podcast page that pulled up before the article was doing there? lol

Great video For some reason, I picture this as a book a liberal like Mark Duplass would read and think he’s revolutionary

Thank you for the conversation on 'White Fragility' issue. I'll like to add that: It had been a quiet recognition and long standing undertone of the ethnic minority communities since the racist campaigns began, most prominently about 1800s! And this racist investment has contributed to our psychological views of the world. Which still shows up in our daily lives today. The trend of weaponising the concept of human prejudices also affect other racial and social communities in different ways . But the most blatantly targeted is the African and their place in their new world. Where the carefully crafted propaganda machine by the colonialists went on to perpetuate these biased, unwritten rules which still governs our world. A world where Africans and people of recent African descent can be easily excluded and often viewed with contempt and in the same frame, Europeans are generally welcomed and assumed favourably in our walks of life. Benefactors of this phenomenon hardly notice the problem. And whether D'Angelo's book was good or not, it has opened pandora's box of the age-old 'taboo subject' and had started a difficult conversations that desperately needed to be had, hopefully - for the better. One way to help change our social psychology on prejudice is through accurate presentation of our global narrative by the custodians of the literary world, - such as, historians, publishers, the print & visual media, education systems etc. Which hasn't been the case.

1. White folks proving the thesis in this comment section. 2. The professor’s work has been out for awhile. The historical moment catapulting it to the forefront of societal consciousness is not shocking. 3. The book is a simple self-assessment tool. 4. The “ideology” of the book being highjacked, commodified, and manipulated into a “mindset” and course of “self-improvement” is not shocking either. 5. People need to exercise some agency and glean what is useful from it and apply it to the real work you’re doing offline. If you subscribe to its message like a devout religionist and only use it as a confessional for assuaging guilt or gaining the feeling of acceptance among non-white people that's your fault.

If these corporations had a lick of sense they would hire Dr Cornell West come in and educate their work force on these topics

Grifters gonna grift.

Michael Brooks, Rest in Power

“this is a great piece” Sam Harris podcast pops up

Too late, it's already spreading to Australia and other countries.

Just finished this book. I notice that her ideology can be reframed in terms of christian ethics. Racism is basically the original sin in this theology (nobody is exempted). PoCs are the new god. You need to repent your sin in order to redeem yourself (she says explicitly near the end that it is liberating to admit you're racist). But what it means to repent is never really specified. Meanwhile she got hired by all these corporations and got rich. Sounds familiar? I'm starting to think that all these racism, sexism and whatnot are neo-religion erected by capitalism to commodify guilt. Fun stuff.

Is this book Antifragile 2 but now with extreme racialist content?

It's #MeToo 2.0. Justice movement as fashion/trend, w/ no meaningful answers, functioning as a distraction from the hard problems--i.e., underlying economic problems.

"sensitivity training"

RIP Michael. :(

It all depends on your Change Theory. Some people believe change must happen on a systemic level; others believe it happens on the level of the family or groups; and still others believe change happens on the individual level. I think it needs to happen on all levels-and you can start anywhere; wherever you happen to be; where you feel motivated. There is nothing wrong with doing diversity training for the individual as long as there is work being done with political policy and within corporate structures and within the family or group unit. And constantly monitoring oneself is nothing but mindfulness training. There is nothing wrong with that as long as you are not condemning yourself for being human and making mistakes.

love michael brooks on the left

My biggest problem with this book isn’t that it’s wrong per-se, it’s that it’s so limited in its scope it’s effectively useless.

She needs to rename it "I'm a racist so you are too"

Have y'all read the book or spoken with her? No? Um. Have you all worked in an environment that is filled with racial tensions and trying to figure out a way to inject some calm and understanding into the situation? No? Um. Have any of you been asked to lead discussions within a highly charged atmosphere to diminish the impact of racism? No? Um. This sounds like pseudo-intelligence. You all sound like you have the answers to solving the racial problems of America. Good for you!

I am reminded (around the 5min mark) that UNITE-HERE (via USAS) used to enforce racial identity caucuses at its conferences.

Fuck, I just found out that you can't donate negative amounts of money to the Rubin report.

Rest in power

I'm black, and have read this book and attended DiAngelo's 3 day workshop. Without a doubt it she offers the most real conversation about individual racism I've ever seen from a white person. It should be mandatory reading for all whites that actually want to help solve their own bias and give them the vocabulary and confidence to truly challenge racist ideology. Michael Brooks, his guests, and the several other critics of White Fragility are obviously triggered by their own fragility or have not read or understand her book. I've noticed how most of the critics are either white, or legitimately haven't read the whole book. White Fragility is real. And it is this that has prevented people from confronting their own racism and having meaningful conversations and solutions about systemic racism.

Interesting! A lot of my friends have been forming book clubs to read white fragility. I wanted to take part too but am in two other book clubs already (ecofeminism by dr vandana shiva and a Peruvian spy thriller set in the inca empire :P) so i havent but i still wanted to read it, now I feel like I dont want to .. I am now reading pleasure based activism and I think it helps also to find a way to think about a part of racism .. My family in Germany are reading Exit Racism, is that one better? (not a gift to corporate hegemony)?

This case just reminds us that the corporatocracy has never solved any of our problems.

this book was the first book i read about race relations and i would say i didnt notice the lack of class consciousness present but i think i was just kind of assuming the existence of class inequalities.

Haven’t read the book but it seems like far too simple of an issue to understand to devote that many pages to it

“I have a dream!! Content of their character, not skin blah blah blah”.

Michael Brooks reminds me of being late to a party... forever.