Beyond Fragility

3.5 stars
Very informative and I think this would be a good book to read with a professional learning community at work. I liked how this incorporated reflection questions and examples of situations throughout. There was an acronym in every chapter which seemed like a lot, but I liked how there was a summary at the end of the book with a recap of everything.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Beyond Fragility” is a great guide on how to be a better anti-racist ally that’s helpful both for people who feel they know nothing about this topic, or for people who are already familiar and looking to improve their anti-racist work and skills. My favorite parts of the book were the case-based scenarios, in which a situation is described and the authors walk you through how to approach the situation and identify the causes and effects of racism and systems of oppression. It’s also very validating: the authors acknowledge that people learned biased stories of American history in school, were often raised to “not see race,” and that reactionary emotions are a normal part of being human; however, all of these can be worked on if people are willing to accept some amount of discomfort.
Where I struggled with this book was the acronyms, which are present in every chapter an outline a strategy for a different aspect of allyship. However, there’s enough overlap between them to make it hard to keep track of them all, and which one to use in certain situations. Some acronyms even embedded an earlier acronym within them. Each individual one would be perfect for something like a single seminar, but putting a dozen of them into one short book feels to me like a recipe for confusion. Overall, though, this book is worth a read for anyone who wants to become a better anti-racist ally no matter their comfort level.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

The authors of Beyond Fragility point out that nobody is born knowing how to promote racial equality, and that the majority of people were never taught how.

As a white person who grew up being taught that “racism is over,” I never learned how to recognize it in myself and in the rest of the world, let alone take action to stop it. Being insulated from the realities of racism means that white people tend to react from a place of fragility when confronted with this reality. This can cause us to center ourselves and our own feelings, instead of those who are most affected by racism.

Beyond Fragility provides a step-by-step guide to educate oneself on how to effectively act against racism. The book is styled like a workbook that will walk you through the process, with places to write down notes and reflections, clarify your values, and make actionable plans. It also provides real-world examples that prompt readers to imagine applying the lessons in each chapter. The authors reassure us that being a perfect anti-racist ally is not necessarily an attainable goal, and provide guidance on how to recover from making racist missteps which are bound to happen.

The book would be an excellent accompaniment to school and workplace anti-harassment training, in addition to being an accessible tool for individuals to complete on their own.