Allyship
Image from The Sunday Times 5/23/21
An opinionated word on Allyship during these terrifying times of racial hatred and violence. I believe we are all responsible for these events. We can’t simply blame extremists for overt actions. We must be willing to acknowledge that we are part of a system that creates, permits, and even plans disparities. We must examine our own participation in the structural racism that makes life more difficult and dangerous for others. Being an ally is not reactive – it is proactive. It is activism itself. Being an ally requires a lifetime of commitment.
In her latest newsletter, LaTonya Wilkins says, “An ally is someone who does the work of understanding where they sit in relation to systems of power and removing their own ego from these larger issues. They recognize how they have been conditioned into different forms of racism and work to un-learn them.” https://latonyawilkins.com/
Here is a jumping off point for that work. It starts with education. Pick just one of these for summer reading. Discuss it with others. Have the awkward conversations. Go ahead and step in it; say the wrong thing; get called out for it; then learn from it. Recognize microaggression & hidden bias. Start with the premise that it is there & look for it. Go ahead and feel defensive at first, but push through it. Really listen to different perspectives.
It is through those experiences that I better understand the history I was not taught. It is through having honest discussions with my BIPOC colleagues that I better understand my own place in the world and how things I think, do, and say, contribute to injustice and disparity. It is through those difficult conversations that I better understand how to be an ally in fact, not just in words. Read one from below – it will give you aha! moments. Learn, unlearn, relearn. If we all do this, we can change the world. Because that is how it is done. One conversation at a time.
Stacey Abrams, Our Time is Now
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Time-Now-Purpose-America/dp/1250257700
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, https://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1595586431
Robin J. DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why it’s so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, https://www.amazon.com/White-Fragility-People-About-Racism/dp/0807047414
Mahzarin R. Banaji & Anthony G. Greenwald, Blind Spot: Hidden Biases of Good People
https://www.amazon.com/Blindspot-Hidden-Biases-Good-People-ebook/dp/B004J4WJUC
Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, https://www.amazon.com/Biased-Uncovering-Hidden-Prejudice-Shapes-ebook/dp/B07DH89ZDY
Virginia Eubanks, Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor https://www.amazon.com/Automating-Inequality-High-Tech-Profile-Police/dp/1250074312
Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s American and its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, https://www.amazon.com/Begin-Again-Baldwins-America-Lessons/dp/0525575324
Elizabeth Hinton, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America, https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674979826
Ibram X. Kendi, How to be an AntiRacist,
https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Antiracist-Ibram-Kendi/dp/0525509283
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, https://www.amazon.com/Stamped-Beginning-Definitive-History-National/dp/1568585985
Dana Bowen Matthew, Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care, https://www.amazon.com/Just-Medicine-Racial-Inequality-American/dp/147989673X
Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper, Together, https://www.amazon.com/Sum-Us-Everyone-Prosper-Together/dp/0525509569
Nell Painter, The History of White People,https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393339741 (with NPR interview: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124700316)
Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1631494538/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind, https://www.amazon.com/Terrible-Thing-Waste-Environmental-American-ebook/dp/B07F65ZFFV (with podcast https://www.npr.org/2019/07/27/745925045/book-a-terrible-thing-to-waste)
Isabella Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
https://www.amazon.com/Caste-Origins-Discontents-Isabel-Wilkerson/dp/0593230256
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership, https://uncpress.org/book/9781469653662/race-for-profit/
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