Peer comment

Peer1: I found Robin DiAngelo's ideas of "white fragility" to be very interesting. I liked how she mentioned how most European-Americans don't see themselves as racists, but what they need to be aware of is that the society that we grow up in is very white-dominant and expresses racism to people of other races. I feel as though everyone has racial fragilities because of where they are raised. For me, growing up in Hawai'i, I developed racial biases towards tourists. I noticed that I held some racial biases only because all I knew growing up was the culture in Hawaii. However, I feel like the purpose of furthering one's education is to develop a self-awareness of one's biases and understand multiple perspectives. Studying literature can provide opportunities to do this especially when focusing on diverse works like we are in course. I also have to agree that it can be difficult to talk about issues of race, but we need to have these conversations and it needs to start in our classrooms. We should all learn how to navigate through conversations about these issues.