It's also easier to read books saying that we need to do the hard work of resisting racism than it is to actually do the hard work of improving justice and opportunity in society (including reducing racism and the impacts of racism).
Most of the time I can't even figure out what work needs to be done, let alone do it.
Comprehensive criminal justice system reform? You bet! But how? Who is going to do the hard work that I don't have the expertise to do? Who is going to make sure it's a credible proposal, not just an implementation of catchy-sounding but poorly-thought-through slogans? Is it going to be tested for effectiveness? How?
I strongly suspect that if you give all these "nice" progressives and liberals a clear, credible way to make a difference, a ton of them will show up to help make it happen. But just scold them for being "nice"? How is that actionable?
Also, you claim, "There aren’t that many overt racists around (one is too many, but still). Therefore…it is obvious that ”good white liberals” are complicit in upholding racism…or it would have ended long ago. Duh."
Well, maybe. Or maybe that kind of simpleminded thinking is exactly the problem.
Maybe racism is self-perpetuating, even self-strengthening, given the incredibly strong coalition instinct ("tribalism") humans have, and the obvious visible difference. You don't have to be "complicit". It just happens when people aren't paying attention.
Maybe racism, like many outlooks ingrained in a society, just has a very slow natural timecourse to die, and we're too impatient and/or provoke a renewal of it rather than letting it die.
Maybe racism is provoked by broad character attacks on swaths of naively well-intentioned people, leaving many of them repulsed and more open to an alternative opposing perspective.
Maybe racism is perpetuated by garden-variety overgeneralization from direct experience with economic and lifestyle realities in many people's experience (and/or portrayals in popular culture).
Maybe implicit racism is subconscious, widespread, and "complicity" has nothing to do with it because it's not amenable to conscious control--instead we need to understand the mechanisms behind the adoption of the subconscious attitudes so we can prevent them to begin with.
Maybe some of all of these. Maybe other things as well. And that doesn't even touch on systemic/institutional racism--that's just individual racial bias.
It's not a "duh" question. It's a profound question. The attitudes towards this seem incredibly incurious to such a great extent that it's as if people are afraid of what they're going to find.
Anyone who actually wants racism gone should be deeply interested in how and why and in what ways it's being perpetuated. You can't do that by arguing strongly for one hypothesis; you have to carefully consider them all, and even then continually doubt that you've found the full answer.
Dr. DiAngelo never seems to me to express much doubt.