{"id":589783,"date":"2021-07-13T11:51:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T15:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=589783"},"modified":"2021-07-13T11:51:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T15:51:23","slug":"white-fragility-author-robin-diangelos-new-book-flops-still-makes-new-york-times-best-seller-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-fragility-author-robin-diangelos-new-book-flops-still-makes-new-york-times-best-seller-list\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018White Fragility\u2019 Author Robin DiAngelo\u2019s New Book Flops, Still Makes New York Times\u2019 Best Seller List"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhite-fragility-author-robin-diangelos-new-book-flops-still-makes-new-york-times-best-seller-list%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=589783&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1227673155.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Robin DiAngelo\u2019s book White Fragility just entered its third year on the New York Times best sellers list, but her latest release \u2014 Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm \u2014 seems unlikely to match that performance. Still, it has broken onto the prestigious book list ahead of at least one better-selling book by a conservative author: Michael Knowles\u2019 Speechless, which sold nearly twice as many copies, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/nielsen\/HardcoverNonfiction.html\">Publishers Weekly<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>White Fragility saw sales skyrocket after the death of George Floyd, but her follow-up has opened to negative reviews and poor sales. \u201cRobin DiAngelo\u2019s last book sold over a million copies. Her new title debuted with about 3,500 sold the first week,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/literaryeric\/status\/1413142151001636886\">according<\/a> to Eric Nelson of Broadside Brooks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"8.3932584269663\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Robin DiAngelo&#8217;s last book sold over a million copies. Her new debuted with about 3500 sold the first week. That&#8217;s pretty interesting.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eric Nelson (@literaryeric) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/literaryeric\/status\/1413142151001636886?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 8, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yet the New York Times catapulted DiAngelo ahead of better-selling authors to number 13 of the 15 titles on the Times\u2019 list \u2014 and even then, Nelson <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/literaryeric\/status\/1413142852381528067\">says<\/a>, only \u201cbecause it was an unusually slow week\u201d for book sales.<\/p>\n<p>DiAngelo\u2019s thesis this time out is that racism is often unconsciously perpetrated by people who consider themselves \u201cWoke.\u201d Among her proof of widespread racism, she condemned white people who smile at black people. \u201cI have heard [b]lack people talk about the awkwardness of white people \u2018over-smiling,\u2019\u201d&nbsp;she wrote. \u201cA friend described going to Whole Foods and feeling exhausted by the pressure to validate all of the over-solicitous white people making a point of smiling at her when she just wanted to get her errands done and get home.\u201d Lest her readers believe that racial progress has been made (and her services may no longer be necessary), DiAngelo warns that the fact that someone is smiling \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean that anti-blackness isn\u2019t simmering just below the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Without a media feeding frenzy or a racial conflagration to fuel its sales, her fourth book has experienced disappointingly low sales, which the media have largely chosen to ignore. The weak sales numbers show that her book did not benefit from her tour of the legacy media. During the week of June 29, when her book debuted, DiAngelo gave interviews to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/06\/26\/health\/robin-diangelo-nice-racism-blake\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/video\/white-fragility-author-robin-diangelo-on-new-book-nice-racism\/#x\">CBS This Morning<\/a>,\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/morning-joe\/watch\/robin-diangelo-uncovers-the-problems-with-nice-racism-in-new-book-115681349851\">MSNBC<\/a>\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe\u201d (where she said she had been doing this work for \u201c20-plus decades\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps out of guilt, the legacy media have largely kept the secret that Nice Racism seems poised to become the biggest flop since \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-news\/hollywood-flashback-heavens-gate-was-pulled-from-theaters-in-1980-4093562\/\">Heaven\u2019s Gate<\/a>.\u201d As of this writing, the only significant outlets to cover DiAngelo\u2019s flagging fortunes are three right-of-center news outlets: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/white-fragility-critical-race-theory-sequel-slow-sales\">The Washington Examiner<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/white-fragility-authors-sequel-on-nice-racism-looks-like-a-flop\/\">National Review Online<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/politics\/white-fragility-sequel\/\">The Washington Free Beacon<\/a>. (One of those is an opinion piece.)<\/p>\n<p>Her book may not have sold, because broader society has rejected the top-down imposition of racial collectivism like the kind espoused in DiAngelo\u2019s new book. It may also be that racism has actually been reduced over the years. For instance, the number of charges of racial discrimination filed with the EEOC has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eeoc.gov\/statistics\/charge-statistics-charges-filed-eeoc-fy-1997-through-fy-2020\">fallen 38%<\/a> since its height under the Obama administration.<\/p>\n<p>DiAngelo made an articulate argument against \u201cantiracist\u201d training while promoting Nice Racism, telling CNN that \u201cantiracism\u201d presentations like the kind she offers \u201ccan make us more confident and more complacent and believe that we\u2019ve arrived, that we know all we need to know, and that we are the ones that are now ready to enlighten everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those who watched or read her interviews may have also noted that DiAngelo sprinkled her speech with contradictory statements. She told CNN:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"9\">\n<p><em>While I believe that [b]lack people understand the [w]hite experience more deeply than [w]hite people do because they\u2019ve had to understand it to navigate it across their lives, there is a place where they just can\u2019t know what it is to be [w]hite. And that\u2019s the piece that I can take up and I can pick it up in a way that is both visible to [w]hite people in a way that it wasn\u2019t before and is undeniable.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That kind of verbal jiu-jitsu allows her to maintain the value of her lucrative business without making the equity-building decision to step down and let a person of color take her place.<\/p>\n<p>That assures that, while her sales may have declined, DiAngelo\u2019s net worth will continue to expand. Robin DiAngelo has hiked her speaking fee by $5,000 since 2019, to <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/culture\/what-wokes-worth-and-why\/\">$20,000<\/a> per appearance and <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/culture\/the-wages-of-woke-2\/\">$40,000<\/a> for a half-day event, and \u201c[t]he eight to ten private events DiAngelo says she speaks at each month likely net her at least $1.5 million annually,\u201d reported The Washington Free Beacon. \u201cAs of July 2020, she owned three homes in Washington state worth a combined $1.6 million.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But DiAngelo\u2019s plummeting sales, whether they garner media attention or not, suggest her position may become less financially remunerative than it has been, because she insulted her intended market: college-educated, left-of-center whites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy rough thesis is that white progressives were okay purchasing her earlier a book because it was on white racism broadly speaking. As long as white people in general are being accused of being racist and fragile, white progressive readers can imagine that&nbsp;<em>other<\/em><em>&nbsp;<\/em>white people are racist and fragile, and not them,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/white-fragility-authors-sequel-on-nice-racism-looks-like-a-flop\/\">wrote<\/a> Philip Klein at National Review Online<em>.<\/em>&nbsp;\u201cIn retrospect, it may not have been the wisest marketing strategy for DiAngelo to write a book directly accusing her core audience of white progressives of being racists themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Marji Ross <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/the-big-lie-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list\">wrote<\/a>, DiAngelo\u2019s inclusion proves that the formulation of the New York Times\u2019 best seller list is \u201cnot exactly a scientific exercise. Instead, the List is ripe for tampering and manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/robin-diangelo-book-bombs-but-makes-nyt-list&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/the-big-lie-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robin DiAngelo\u2019s book White Fragility just entered its third year on the New York Times best sellers list, but her latest release \u2014 Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2314560,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1227673155.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018White Fragility\u2019 Author Robin DiAngelo\u2019s New Book Flops, Still Makes New York Times\u2019 Best Seller List","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-589783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/GettyImages-1227673155.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"\u2018White Fragility\u2019 Author Robin DiAngelo\u2019s New Book Flops, Still Makes New York Times\u2019 Best Seller List","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2314560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}