ENG2 Course: Analyzing Rhetorical Techniques in White Fragility Essay

This essay analyzes Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility," exploring how three rhetorical techniques support her argument about white people's reactions to racial stress. The essay examines "triggers" that cause discomfort, the concepts of "Universalism and Individualism," and the "Entitlement to racial comfort." It argues that white people's defensiveness stems from an environment that protects them from race-based stress, leading to behaviors like anger, fear, and denial. The author supports these points with quotations from DiAngelo and other sources, concluding that white fragility perpetuates racial discrimination. The essay emphasizes the need for understanding and addressing these patterns to foster more productive conversations about race.

Running head: ENG2
ENG2
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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ENG2
DISCUSS THE WAY THREE RHETORICAL TECHNIQUES ARE USED BY
DIANGELO IN “WHITE FRAGILITY” TO RELATE HER PURPOSE.
INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH:
There are innumerable ways, by which White Americans, present themselves as
standardized people of the society, and create an exception, discriminating other color people.
The author Robin DiAngelo, in his article “White Fragility”, explains that white people cocoons
themselves from any race based stress, has enunciated White dominance to be an essential factor
triggering racism, but the dominance also protects the white from facing any traumas. The author
has also depicted that many white people creates objection towards racism, but often protects
themselves by projecting themselves superior, having their own entitlement. White people has
considerable grown defensive towards the concept of racism, which the author Robin Diangelo
as White Fragility. White people generally expresses this resistance towards racism, by
displaying anger, fear, guilt, argumentative reactions and even silence. As depicted by the
quotation, ‘Whiteness’ refers to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and
unnamed”, which explores the concept of White Fragility (DiAngelo, 2018). Three rhetorical
techniques or tools that relate to the concept of author depiction of “White Fragility” will
exemplify the thesis point of the study. The three rhetorical tools are “triggers”, “Universalism
and Individualism”, “Entitlement to racial comfort”.
BODY PARAGRAPH 1

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ENG2
The first technique refers to triggers that arises the situation of racial discomfort, and the
fragility of the white has increased to such an extent, that even a small incident reflects their fear,
resistance in various defensive actions.
Evidence quotation
1. “White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes
Intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves” ( DiAngelo, 2015))
2. “Whites have not had to build the cognitive or affective skills or develop
the stamina that would allow for constructive engagement across racial divides”
3. ‘White Fragility may be conceptualized as a product of the habitus, a response or
“condition” produced and reproduced by the continual social and material advantages
of the white structural position”.
Concluding sentence:
Therefore, it has been depicted that White Americans take shelter of their privileges, which
they have acquired through several decades of racial discrimination, or representing their position as
authoritative.

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ENG2
BODY PARAGRAPH 2
The technique referring to “Universalism and Individualism”, which compels the American
whites to think themselves as universal human beings, as can represent all human experience, but other
racial variations can only represent their typical culture discriminating them. The concept of
individualism when aligned with universalism is different, as white people grow thinking themselves
individuals, defying other socially formed groups. They even ignore the history or origin of people, but
portrays themselves superior as per distribution of wealth and power.
Evidence quotation
1” Whites are taught to see their perspectives as objective and representative of reality”
2 “The discourse of universalism functions similarly to the discourse of individualism
but instead of declaring that we all need to see each other as individuals
(everyone is different), the person declares that we all need to see each other as
human beings (everyone is the same).”( Applebaum, 2017)
3 “Individualism erases
history and hides the ways in which wealth has been distributed and accumulated
over generations to benefit whites today.”
Concluding sentence:
By the evidence quotation provided, for the concept of Universalism and Individualism, the
white people upbringing compels tem in believing that they are the only unique and original people,
excluding themselves from any social discrimination and cultural atrocities.
BODY PARAGRAPH 3:

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ENG2
The Third tool defines the “Entitlement to racial comfort”, which compels White people to
think themselves different and devoid of any part of social groups, which provides them a comfort.
Therefore, whenever any situation of racial discrimination arises, they blame either the person or event
that has started the situation.
Evidence quotation
1 “Whites have not had to build tolerance for racial discomfort and thus when racial
discomfort arises, whites typically respond as if something is “wrong,” and
blame the person or event that triggered the discomfort (usually a person of color)”.
2 “Whites often confuse comfort
with safety and state that we don’t feel safe when what we really mean is that we
don’t feel comfortable. This trivializes our history of brutality towards people of
color and perverts the reality of that history.”( Corrigan, 2016)
3 “White people do notice the racial locations
of racial others and discuss this freely among themselves, albeit often in coded
ways.”( Hines III, 2016)
Concluding sentence:
The white always find their way to comfort themselves and resist themselves from being
included in racial groups. They deny the various racial discriminations that have created brutal history
especially towards black people, making the problem of black discrimination persistent.
CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH:

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ENG2
Therefore, from the supporting ideas, and the quotations it can be concluded that, white people
believes that education for understanding racial discriminations should be done by people who interact
with minor groups, making themselves superior. The author explains the attitude of Americans, as the
White Fragility, as whenever they are included or depicted as part of any group; they act defensive
showing emotional and fragile behaviors. White people do engage in talks of racism covering it with
code words, but falling into such situation, they blame the person or the event showing revolting and
misleading behavior to defense themselves. The attitude of white people is making the concept of
racial discrimination to linger and magnify creating issues for other people belonging from various
groups.
References
Applebaum, B. (2017). Comforting discomfort as complicity: White fragility and the pursuit of
invulnerability. Hypatia, 32(4), 862-875 (https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12352).
Corrigan, L. M. (2016). On rhetorical criticism, performativity, and white fragility. Review of
Communication, 16(1), 86-88 (https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2016.1183886).
DiAngelo, R. (2015). White fragility: Why it’s so hard to talk to White people about racism. The
Good Men Project(http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/whiteness/white
%20fragility.pdf).
DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon
Press.
Hines III, M. T. (2016). The Embeddedness of White Fragility within White Pre-Service Principals'
Reflections on White Privilege. Critical Questions in Education, 7(2), 130-145
(https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1104686).

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ENG2
Adler-Bell, S. (2015). Why White People Freak Out when They’re Called Out about Race. Alternet
(http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/whiteness/why%20white%20people%20freak%20out
%20.pdf).