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'White Fragility' author Robin DiAngelo has been accused of advocating for racial segregation in a bid to combat racism, prompting bewilderment from critics.

'People of color need to get away from White people and have some community with each other,' DiAngelo said during a March 1 webinar, 'Racial Justice: The Next Frontier.'

DiAngelo then went on to suggest that people who do not concede to antiracist teachings do not belong in modern workforces.

'In 2023, we have to see the ability to engage in these conversations with some nuance and some skill as a basic qualification and if you can't do that, you're just simply not qualified in today's workplace,' DiAngelo said.

'What I want to do is create a culture that actually spits out those who are resistant.'

DailyMail.com has contacted DiAngelo for comment.

The racially charged comments enraged conservatives on Twitter.

'Robin DiAngelo sounding like an old-line segregationist,' anti-CRT expert Chris Rufo tweeted in response to the clip.

Conservative podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey said DiAngelo's comments sounded like racial comments made by Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, that caused several newspapers to pull his long-running cartoon.

'When Robin DiAngelo says it, it's inspirational and she gets paid $20k. When Scott Adams says it, it's racist and he loses his job,' she tweeted.

Darrell B. Harrison, director of digital platforms at Grace to You Ministries, argued that DiAngelo's comments revealed her own racist attitudes.

'For people like Robin DiAngelo, it's always other white people who black people need to 'get away from,' but never her. DiAngelo is a woke Bull Connor, only instead of dogs and fire hoses, she uses the divisive and factious tenets of critical race theory to keep blacks in their place,' he tweeted.

The left-wing activist was on a panel with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultants Mary-Frances Winters and Mareisha N. Reese discussing the future of DEI when she made the comments.

Her most recent book title, 'The Facilitator's Guide for White Affinity Groups: Strategies for Leading White People in an Anti-Racist Practice,' also suggests she believes Whites should stay within their own racial social circles.

DiAngelo has published a number of academic articles on race, privilege, and education and written several books.

In 2011, she co-wrote with Ozlem Sensoy, 'Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Critical Social Justice Education.'

The book won the American Educational Research Association's Critics' Choice Book Award in 2012 and the Society of Professors of Education Book Award in 2018.

DiAngelo later that year published a paper titled 'White Fragility' in The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, thereby coining the term.

She defined the concept of white fragility as 'a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves'.

Since 2016, DiAngelo has regularly led workshops on the topic. In 2017, the term 'white fragility' was shortlisted by the Oxford Dictionary for Word of the Year.

An in June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, White Fragility reached number one on the New York Times list.

DiAngelo makes an estimated $728,000 a year from speaking engagements and workshops and is charging an average of $14,000 per speech to talk about 'utlra-woke' concepts.

DiAngelo, who has a PhD in Multicultural Education from the University of Washington has written multiple books about confronting racism including New York Times bestseller 'White Fragility.'

When 'White Fragility' debuted in 2018, her average speaking fees were $6,200, according to her website.

From there they steadily climbed to to $9,200 in 2019 and $14,000 by August 2020.

Now, she said her agency - Big Speak - negotiates her fees, which are listed on the the company's website as $30,000 to $40,000.She also makes 7.5 percent in royalties from 'White Fragility.'

Her main focus is 'accountability within antiracist work is the understanding that what I profess to value must be demonstrated in action,' according to her website.

DiAngelo's 'Confronting Racism' LinkedIn presentation to Coca-Cola in February, which included slides that encouraging people to 'try to be less white,' was met with backlash.

The slides in question, which went viral on social media after they were revealed by a 'whistleblower' working for the soft drink giant in the US, told viewers that being 'less white' meant being 'less oppressive', 'less arrogant' and 'less ignorant'.

After calls for boycotts and lawsuits against Coca-Cola, the firm said it merely provided access to the slides on the LinkedIn Learning site as part of its diversity training, rather than making them required viewing. They've since been taken down.

It is unknown how much she was paid for the presentation.

Other speaking engagements included a $12,750 presentation at the University of Wisconsin in October 2020, which was reported by The Washington Free Beacon, a $12,000 two-hour lecture at the University of Kentucky, which was reported by The Daily Signal, and the Tulsa City-County Library paid her $15,000 for a 90-minute Zoom discussion, according to ocpathink.org.

All the outlets filed Freedom of Information requests to find out how much she was paid.

It's unclear how much money she makes per year from her book, speaking arrangements and as a tenured professor at Westfield State University in Massachusetts and an Affiliate Associate Professor of Education at the University of Washington, Seattle.

But after George Floyd's murder in May 2020, anti-racism speeches and training became a booming industry.

A July 1 story on Reason.com estimates she makes about $728,000 a year from speeches and workshops alone, with would put her in the top-earning 1 percent.

In her 'accountability' section on her website, DiAngelo defended her speaking fees, saying fees are rarely fixed and 'rise and fall based on the type of organization and fluctuations in demand.'

'My fee is on a sliding scale; I am paid more by corporate orgs, and much less by non-profits, particularly non-profits that are focused on anti-racist work and/or are BIPOC-led,' she said on her website, adding that she does a lot of reduced-rate, pro bono and fundraising work.

'This year thus far, with the popularity of my book and more work in the corporate sector, my fee has ranged from pro bono (zero) to upwards of $30,000, which is well within the standard range for a best-selling author who is in high demand,' she says on her website.

Her listed speaking fee is at the top end of anti-racism speakers listed on allamericanspeakers.com, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter Dr. Bernice King, whose speaker fees are listed as $20,000 to $30,000.

But DiAngelo isn't the only person who's making money as the country has become more sensitive to race and race-based issues.

For example, Robette Ann Dias has been training people how not to be racist for nearly 20 years, but her organization - Crossroads Antiracism Organization and Training - would previously get about nine requests a month, according to a July 2020 Washington Post story.

The fight over critical race theory in schools has escalated in the United States over the last year.

The theory has sparked a fierce nationwide debate in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests around the country over the last year and the introduction of the 1619 Project.

The 1619 Project, which was published by the New York Times in 2019 to mark 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived on American shores, reframes American history by 'placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the center of the US narrative'.

The debate surrounding critical race theory regards concerns that some children are being indoctrinated into thinking that white people are inherently racist or sexist.

Those against critical race theory have argued it reduces people to the categories of 'privileged' or 'oppressed' based on their skin color.

Supporters, however, say the theory is vital to eliminating racism because it examines the ways in which race influence American politics, culture and the law.

Within two weeks of Floyd's murder, her organization received 110 requests.

The organization charges $4,000 per day plus the expenses for trainers for introductory workshops, which run four to eight hours and includes 25 to 100 people.

For 'in-depth workshops,' the organization charges $9,000 per workshop plus the expenses for two trainers. Workshops typically run 2.5 days for a maximum of 45 participants.

The Washington Post story mentions DiAngelo's book as one of four examples of anti-racism training books that have climbed the bestseller list as the country became more 'woke' and sensitive towards race.

She and several other anti-racist authors and civil rights activists have been paid tens of thousands of dollars by higher learning institutions for lectures, fireside chats or keynote addresses.

Boston University professor and author Ibram Kendi, who wrote the NYT's bestseller 'How to be an Antiracist' among other books, was payed more $300,000 over the past few years to deliver speeches, mainly in universities, according to reporting by The Fix.

The outlet reported all the contracts with Kendi were worth at least $10,000 since 2019, and payments jumped after Floyd's death.

Kendi received $12,500 to $24,000 from five schools for anti-rasist lectures, most of which were 45 minutes plus a 15-minute Q&A section, between August and November 2020, The Fix reported.

The outlet is still waiting on multiple Freedom of Information requests for other public speaking engagements.

One of Kendi's most recent speeches was a $25,000 endeavor paid for byCharlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, which angered two top North Carolina Republicans.

Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger and Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson issued a joint press release on June 23 condemning presentation while admitting they didn't watch it or read his book.

'The state's second-largest school district paid $25,000 to leading Critical Race Theory proponent Ibram X. Kendi for an event just last week,' Berger said in a statement.

'This is clear and direct evidence that Critical Race Theory is being pushed in North Carolina. The fact that a public school district would pay someone who chooses to teach others that 'the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination' is unimaginable, Robinson said.

Another high profile speaker is Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and lead author of the New York Times '1619 Project.'

She was paid $50,000 by the Oregon State Education Department for two seminars and $25,000 for an online Zoom lecture given to the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.

Both were revealed through Freedom of Information requests. She's represented by the Lavin Agency, but her speaking fees aren't listed.

Other antiracist speakers paid thousands of dollars for lectures or talks are Tim Wise, who was paid $10,000 by the University of Michigan for Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, and Dena Simmons, who was paid by the Naperville, Illinois school district in February for a 60-minute presentation.

Critical race theory and anti-racist literature have been polarizing topics, with some admonishing the idea, claiming it divides people of different races.

DiAngelo's work is no exception.

On her website, she said, 'We work towards creating a culture in which not engaging in antiracist practices within a racist society is what is actually uncomfortable.'

Critics, likeSteve QJ, a black writer whose story titled 'Robin DiAngelo Is The 'Vanilla Ice' Of Anti-Racism' was published by Illuminated-Curated, flat out called DiAngelo a 'racist.'

'Robin DiAngelo's 'White Fragility'has singlehandedly confused millions of people about race. It manages to talk down to black people andwhite people, all whilst offering nothing in the way of solutions,' he wrote.

'The most valuable contribution most people can make is to change their world. To stop treating black people as a field of study and start treating us like ordinary human beings.'

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White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo is accused of being pro-segregation - Daily Mail

Tim Wise is among the nation's most prominent anti-racist educators and authors. He has spent the past 30 years lecturing on matters of racism and racial bias in all 50 states, on over 1,500 college campuses, at hundreds of professional and academic conferences, and to corporate, non-profit, and community groups throughout North America.

He is the author of eight books, including his highly acclaimed memoir, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, and his latest essay collection, Dispatches from the Race War. He has contributed essays or chapters to 25 additional volumes, and his writings have appeared in dozens of popular magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals.

Wise is a frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR, and his speeches have been viewed over 30 million times on various social media platforms.

Wise has served as adjunct faculty at the Smith College School for Social Work and was the 2008 Oliver L. Brown Distinguished Visiting Scholar for Diversity Issues at Washburn University, in Topeka, Kansas. He has served on the advisory boards of the Fisk University Race Relations Institute, the African American Policy Forum, and the National League of Cities' Racial Equity and Leadership Team.

From 1990-1992, Wise served as the Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism: the largest of several groups formed for the purpose of defeating Neo-Nazi political candidate, David Duke.

He graduated from Tulane University in 1990 and received anti-racism training from the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, both in New Orleans.

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Tim Wise | NAACP

Coming six months after last summers George Floyd protests, the Capitol Riot was utterly predictable, according to anti-racism advocate and educator Tim Wise. The white Tennessean has spent a quarter-century studying how American racism pollutes our politics, criminal justice and policing, health care, immigration, and everyday interactions. His latest collection of essays, Dispatches From the Race War, offers unflinching assessments of the culpability of white Americans for these crises and relentless indignities. Since June 2020, he writes, we have been in the midst of a full-scale rebellion, or what some have called a soft civil war.

The American Prospect spoke to Wise about where he sees the country headed after the attack on the Capitol by white supremacists. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Gabrielle Gurley: 2020 was even more tumultuous than 1968, but many Republicans are wedded to Trumpism despite the pandemic, summer protests, and the Capitol Riot. Why?

Tim Wise: Youre absolutely right, and I say that as someone who spent most of 1968 in my mothers womb, and so I think I inherited the trauma. For some Republicans, theres this pose of unity, cant-we-all-get-along self-preservation, because they realized that they stoked the fires that burn, metaphorically, and, perhaps, literally on the sixth. Some of them have to make the calls for unity because they worry about their future if they remain tied to the craziness. Others like Marjorie Taylor Greene embrace the craziness; some of them are just that far gone.

Others are intensely political animals like Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, who want to distance themselves from the lunacy of January 6, but not on principle, just for preservation. Theyre sticking to the script, trying to govern as the minority, at least from a position as responsible stewards of good government, but their side just tried to overthrow the government. To me, its a very hard sell.

Gurley: How do you assess the response of white America to all of this?

Wise: It was heartening to see so many white folks getting to see what Black and brown folk have been trying to get us to see for a long time. Part of what allowed a lot of white folks to have their eyes open in this moment, where Eric Garner or Tamir Rice didnt, was the pandemic moment. If theyd been going about the hustle and bustle of their daily lives, they could have just hit the snooze button like they have been for generations.

More from Gabrielle Gurley

What we see now was utterly predictable. Its what Carol Anderson at Emory University talks about in her book, White Rage, this backlash that happens throughout American history. There is a perception on the part of a certain segment of white America that Black folks have either made significant inroads and progress or are in the process of organizing for that purpose. So since abolition there has been this rageful response.

All Trump really offered was an excuse for their anxiety, a psychological balm, an enemies list, and an ability to say, I hate who you hate. I will feed you your hatred back to you as a substitute for a truly improved life.

Gurley: What did Trump offer his white supporters, especially the wealthy white conservatives, who did not take to the streets but accepted the white supremacist trappings?

Wise: It says a lot about how that group, even the ones that arent overt racists, sexists, and bigots, that theyre willing to embrace someone who was all of those things for the sake of their bank accounts. It really wasnt the hardcore white working classif you look at the median income of Trump supporters, its like $78,000, which is above the national median for what we consider working-class levels of income and occupational status.

Who are those folks? Theyre the anxious, white middle class. That anxious middle is not rich enough to be completely comfortable, but close enough to the better-off to think, Well, if I could just put some distance between me and these Black and brown people. Theyre always looking backward at whos gaining on them. They must know after four years that they didnt benefit economically.

All Trump really offered to them was an excuse for their anxiety, a psychological balm, an enemies list, and an ability to say, I hate who you hate. I will feed you your hatred back to you as a substitute for a truly improved life. A lot of people didnt care that the jobs didnt come back because at least hes standing up to those awful Black ballplayers.

Gurley: What did you take away from the 2020 Georgia Senate contest: Is it a cautionary tale perhaps, because the conditions that produced Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff may not continue to exist?

Wise: We do need to be careful with the assumption that Georgia is now this permanently blue state. It is a very divided state. In the 2018 gubernatorial election, Stacey Abrams lost 78 percent of white women, which was actually higher than the percentage of white men, 75 percent. Thanks to Abrams, and the folks that shes helped to mobilize, they have obviously made a difference in just a few years. But if we were not in an election cycle where the head of the party has basically said, its all rigged against you, theres no point in even voting, Im not sure that we get these outcomes. White turnout would have been higher, and we would not be sitting here talking about Georgia the way we are now.

The good news is one of those seats is safe for six years, and the other will be for a couple of years. The six-year seat, that is enough time, at least in theory, for the Democrats to continue to register folks. If people take [New York Times columnist] Charles Blows article and his new book [The Devil You Know] seriously, he tells Black folks to move to the South, a revolutionary strategy that is actually very interesting. I dont disagree.

There are real power bases that are being built, both politically and economically, in places like Atlanta and Charlotte. But its going to require ongoing work, because its certainly not a settled proposition. Something is coming in response, its just a question of whether or not progressive folks will be prepared for it.

Gurley: Black candidates lost decisively in other Senate races in the South. To the degree that you can generalize across states, what do you extrapolate about whites in the rest of the South?

Wise: As a lifelong Southerner, Ive known for a very long time that there are multiple Souths. I grew up at a time when Tennessee was a solid Democratic state. I certainly wouldnt say it was a progressive state, but by comparison, we always had Democratic governors, Democratic statehouses, Democratic senators. Now, its essentially Nashville and Memphis versus the rest of the state, and maybe Chattanooga, increasingly, as a tech hub.

What weve seen in the last 20 years in Tennessee, and you see this in a few other states as well, is the depths of the culture war and the depths of the urban-rural divide are very, very deep. There isnt a sufficient number of Black folk, a Black political power base here, compared to Georgia and North Carolina, that can compete with these exurban and rural power bases of reactionary, Christian white folks. Honestly, Mississippi and South Carolina would be far more likely to turn purple/blue before Tennessee. Those states that have larger percentages of Black folks and a more developed political power base that tends to compensate for the conservative cultural bent of white folks in the region.

But the Tennessee Democratic Party has been very slow to embrace the metropolitan nature of its power base. Its not just Black folks, its white folks who dont mind living in Nashville and Memphis and their first-ring suburbs, or in the heart of Chattanooga. That is what has happened in Georgia, and with the North Carolina Democratic Party. They built a base in Charlotte within the Research Triangle. Are they always successful? No, they win some, they lose some.

But in Tennessee, we just keep losing. The state Democratic Party hasnt been willing to say, this is who we are, and thats OK, because if it werent for Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga, we would have no economic growth at all in this stateand we dont mind being the party associated with that economic engine. Yall can thank us later.

Gurley: Why has race drowned out solutions to the historic pandemic?

Wise: Its not really shocking to me that the politicization happened. Weve now lost 400,000 people, and a good 230,000 of those have been white. The death rate may be higher for Black, Latinx, and indigenous folk, but you just buried your grandma because you decided that [the pandemic] wasnt really a big deal. It plays into that narrative of the undeserving being catered to, and the hard-working, deserving people being punished. These folks viewed social distancing and masking as almost like a redistribution scheme in a weird way. Its just very revealing because what it says is that even when faced with ones own mortality, one will in many cases opt for the baubles of caste over the actual needs of your own life and that of your family. You literally will put the gun to the head of grandma in order to remind everybody directly or indirectly that, by God, Im white and you will not tell me what to do.

I dont think Black and brown folks have the job of helping young white people figure it out.

Gurley: Youve pointed to the conversations about diversity and institutional and structural racism that are happening now. Whats to be done when, confronted about privilege, white people become defensive and angry?

Wise: We now live in a culture that has made just enough progress, culturally speaking, where people know theyre not supposed to be racist and act on these views. But the problem with that progress is that it creates a huge incentive to portray oneself as much more ecumenical and progressive than one is. To be confronted with the evidence, whether its implicit bias, or explicit bias, or unearned privilege, is to say to that white person who, unlike their grandparents, is very invested their fair-mindedness: Well, youre not quite the person that you think you are. You have some stake in this system of inequality, even if you didnt mean to, you have benefited in some way from the harm done to othersconfronted with the evidence, well, its hard.

The second reason is much more cynical: Some people know full damn well that they have privilege and just dont want to give it up.

Gurley: In the essay If Its a Civil War, Pick a Side, you ask, So, which direction now white folks? What is the answer?

Wise: White America is fracturing in a way that the country fractured at the time of the Civil War. Its split between those white folks who embrace the new America, which is much more multicultural, multiracial, and pluralistic, and those who are deathly afraid of that and wish to hold on to the old order. Some of it is playing out geographically, but not north and south so much as urban and metropolitan versus rural and small-town.

If a white person grows up in the South, and nonetheless ends up progressive and on the left, I can almost always guarantee you that that person came to their progressivism through the crucible of race. Because there is no way or very little chance for someone whos white and grows up in the South not to realize that race is the background noise of everything that happens here and has been for a long time, if for no other reason that Yankee folk wont let us forget. But the problem is that white folks outside of the Southif you grew up in the Midwest, on the West Coast, Vermont, or even in New Yorkyou dont necessarily have to engage with race if you dont want to.

Theres a good base to work with among younger white folks, but its going to require those who believe in racial justice to really nurture that part of white America and build upon its consciousness so that it doesnt become complacent and embrace a colorblindness that leaves it unwilling or unable to understand power differentials and the ongoing inequities.

But I dont think Black and brown folks have the job of helping young white people figure it out. Thats my job and the job of other white elders. If white folks are going to move forward on this issue, theyre going to need to study the history of white internal resistance to white supremacy.

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Which Direction Now, White Folks? - The American Prospect

Hundreds of students and administrators gathered in Portland this week to push colleges and universities across the nation to do a better job in addressing equity issues.

The National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) has become the gathering place for student activists and administrators to strategize and brainstor ways to address some of the nation's most vexing social ills. This year's conference included presentations from well-known activists, scholars and authors including Tim Wise, Matika Wilbur, and the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, who delivered a rousing speech on Wednesday, where he called for a "moral revival."

"There is a challenge in this moment, a challenge of a moral crisis and a crisis of civilization that grows out of how this nation began," said Barber, who is co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. "The struggle is to make real the promises of America."Reverend Dr. William J. Barber

Barber challenged attendees to push back against a right-wing agenda that opposes gun control and refuses to protect a woman's right to choose.

"In an increasingly polarized world, the easy way out is to remain neutral outside of the debate," Barber told the participants. But telling the truth in a time of lies is revolutionary in and of itself.

The challenge, he said, is to engage in a "collective cry that ultimately yields progress over the long run. There must be prophetic tears, until we create a flood of transformation. As a nation, we have much to cry about."

Too many people in power have become "too comfortable with other peoples death," said Barber, who noted that he is dismayed by the failure to enact gun control in the wake of the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas and chided political leaders for refusing the push for an increase in the minimum wage.

If we dont deal with this, its coming our way, Barber said, adding that the rhetoric of some conservatives has contributed to the increasing levels of violence throughout the nation.

"Weaponized language unleashes crazy folks," Barber said. "It gives them justification to carry out their meaness."

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NCORE Tackles Equity Issues in Higher Education and Beyond - Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

Davey D speaks with American activist and writer Tim Wise about racism and white privilege in America. The conversation explores the insurrection, race war, and the deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, NY.

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. He has spent the past 25 years speaking to audiences in all 50 states, on over 1500 college and high school campuses, at hundreds of professional and academic conferences, and to community groups across the country.

Wise has also trained corporate, government, entertainment, media, law enforcement, military, and medical industry professionals on methods for dismantling racial inequity in their institutions, and has provided anti-racism training to educators and administrators nationwide and internationally, in Canada and Bermuda.

Wise is the author of nine books, including his latest,Dispatches from the Race War(City Lights Books).Other books includeUnder the Affluence,Dear White America: Letter to a New MinorityandColorblind(all from City Lights Books); his highly-acclaimed memoir,White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, (recently updated and re-released by Soft Skull Press);Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White; Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male;andBetween Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.

Named one of 25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World, byUtne Reader, Wise has contributed chapters or essays to over 25 additional books and his writings are taught in colleges and universities across the nation. His essays have appeared on Alternet, Salon, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, The Root, Black Commentator, BK Nation and Z Magazine among other popular, professional and scholarly journals.

Excerpt from:
In Conversation with Tim Wise - KPFA - 94.1FM