America’s top anti-racism scholar has been accused of ripping off the work of two Asian-American colleagues.
Robin DiAngelo, author of the seminal text White Fragility, allegedly plagiarized multiple scholars, including minority writers, in her 2004 doctoral thesis.
A complaint filed with the University of Washington and shared with the Washington Free Beacon found 20 examples of DiAngelo lifting material from other papers without proper attribution.
This included material from two Asian-American professors, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Stacey Lee and Northeastern University professor Thomas Nakayama.
The allegations are particularly damaging for DiAngelo, 67, who has spoken of the need to credit and attribute other people’s work, especially for minorities who are often overlooked.
Robin DiAngelo, author of the seminal text White Fragility, allegedly plagiarized multiple scholars in her doctoral thesis.
She rose to prominence with the publication of her 2018 New York Times bestseller book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.
‘It is never appropriate to use the secondary source without acknowledging it, and even worse to present it as one’s own words,’ Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, told the outlet.
‘That’s plagiarism.’
DiAngelo, Nakayama, Lee, and the university did not answer The Mail’s requests for comment.
The complaint called a spotlight on DiAngelo’s dissertation, titled Whiteness in Racial Dialogue: A Discourse Analysis,’ which formed the basis of her doctorate in education.
It highlights large excerpts from her work alongside the text she is accused of copying, with the similarities highlighted in yellow.
The University of Washington says plagiarism is ‘borrowing the structure of another author’s phrases or sentences’ without credit, or citing a source but copying their words without quotation marks.
The scholar uses the title Dr. DiAngelo earned from that essay and calls herself an affiliate associate professor of education at the university.
She also charges tens of thousands of dollars for running sessions as an anti-racism consultant.
The report highlighted how DiAngelo’s website stressed the importance of giving credit to black, indigenous, and people of color (Bipoc) individuals and to promote their work.
‘Promote the work and services of BIPOC people,’ says DiAngelo’s site.
‘Channel work to BIPOC people. Seek out and choose BIPOC-owned businesses and service providers. Co-lead paid work with BIPOC people when possible.’
Northeastern University professor Thomas Nakayama is one of the scholars whose work was allegedly lifted.
Another Asian-American academic, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Stacey Lee, also had her words pilfered, it is claimed
It adds: ‘Always cite and give credit to the work of BIPOC people who have informed your thinking. When you use a phrase or idea you got from a BIPOC person, credit them.’
DiAngelo rose to prominence with the publication of her 2018 New York Times bestseller book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.
The book rails at the ongoing failure of white people to account for and redress past injustices against minorities, and how they become defensive and fragile when challenged about it.
It gained renewed interest and become a more mainstream concept during the summer of 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis.
The phrase ‘White fragility’ came from DiAngelo’s dissertation.
‘White fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves,’ DiAngelo wrote.
‘These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation.’
The revelations followed several plagiarism allegations against top Ivy League academics.
Most notably, the Free Beacon reported on dozens of claims against then-Harvard President Claudine Gay in 2023, who was forced to resign in January.
