PICD is committed to facing and challenging racism in the contra dance community. We believe that if we’re to be a truly welcoming, inclusive and diverse community, we must first strive to be an anti-racist community. Each month, PICD will read a book focused on anti-racism and examines how racism is perpetuated through the living traditions in which we engage.
We’re invested in carrying forward our living traditions while actively examining how they’ve perpetuated racism and, together, working toward dismantling the racism that continues today.
Join us
To participate in PICD’s Reading Group, simply buy or borrow the book of the month, read it while using the reading guide and participate in the Zoom discussion. (Prior registration is required.)
As a majority white community, facilitating candid, constructive reflection on the position and privilege of white people is this reading group’s primary responsibility and goal. We believe that reflection is a form of action. This is especially true for white people, as we have spent our lives internalizing the structural racism that surrounds us. Dismantling these racist structures and replacing them with healthy, anti-racist counter-narratives requires hard daily work.
This month
This month's book will be White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. We’ll meet on Zoom Thursday, July 30 from 7-9pm.
To access the invitation to the Zoom discussion, you must register.
The Book
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
“The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality."
In this "vital, necessary, and beautiful book" (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and "allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people' (Claudia Rankine). 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 examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.”