Robin DiAngelo, author of the 2018 smash hit White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, may soon relinquish her title as America’s preeminent “antiracist” influencer.
DiAngelo’s much anticipated second title, Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm, sold just 3,500 copies in its first week of publication and barely made the New York Times bestseller list during what one literary executive described as an “unusually slow” period for book sales. For the sake of comparison, disgraced governor Andrew Cuomo’s pandemic memoir, American Crisis, sold nearly 12,000 copies in its first week.
Published on June 29, Nice Racism debuted at number 13 (out of 15) on the Times list of hardcover nonfiction titles, behind older works such as Bill O’Reilly’s Killing The Mob and Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey’s memoir, Greenlights. By contrast, White Fragility spent well over a year on the Times bestseller list and surged to number one following the George Floyd protests in May 2020.
Most white liberals adored White Fragility, or at least publicly signaled their adoration for it. The book, however, was not universally celebrated as a vital antidote to the scourge of white supremacy. Columbia University professor John McWhorter, who is black, called it a work of “dehumanizing condescension.”- READ MORE
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