My understanding is that one of the very first mistakes White people can make when they first decide they want to do something is to ask other people (especially people of color) what they can do to get involved. One of the first ways to take action is to learn from the many many many resources on what it means to be an effective ally (or 'co-conspirator for justice' as I heard at a recent event).
So, in no particular order, here a variety of resources I've seen lately. If you have others, please share!
Here are a few more links to huge collections of resources
And a few thought provoking articles on the topic:
I'm still working my way through these extensive resources and just a few parts I'm currently struggling with are:
So, in no particular order, here a variety of resources I've seen lately. If you have others, please share!
- Guidelines for Being Strong White Allies "Assume racism is everywhere, every day. Notice how racism is denied, minimized, and justified. Understand and learn from the history of whiteness and racism. Learn something about the history of white people who have worked for racial justice."
- A Guide for White Allies Confronting Racial Injustice "I think that enabling dialogue is most important step, because if we’re being honest, there are really only two things that you can do: listen, and speak to other white people."
- White Privilege and Male Privilege This includes a powerful list of 46 things that "As far as I can see, my Afro-American co-workers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place, and line of work cannot count on most of these conditions."
- Rules for Allies by Cynthia Lin "Be genuine in seeking to learn from the experiences of other people, as they understand them. REALLY listening can be difficult, because often it seems like or it MAY BE that you and your community are being called out as responsible for oppression. Often, natural reactions are guilt, shame, fear, and defensiveness"
- Things for White People to do to Fight Racism in the US [a non-comprehensive list] Educate Yourself, Work to Understand Your Own Implicit Bias, Educate Other White People, Make yourself uncomfortable and face your fears, Resist the Temptation to Embrace Your Privilege
- How to be a White Ally "The onus of the white ally is to dismantle the system of whiteness from within. With this, it is not enough to march with Black and Brown bodies with the expectation of likes and retweets. White allies, when armed with political education and pro-Black credo, work best in those enigmatic closed door meetings that have been historically denied to people of color."
- The 5 Methods of Divestment & Weaponization of White Power & Privilege "In this historical moment, there are many white people who say they want to participate in the struggle for Black liberation. Due to the persistent nature of white domination, even in explicitly anti-racist political spaces, (we call this phenomenon the persistent reestablishment of white supremacy), it is our belief that in order for white activists to become real assets to Black liberation movements who are struggling for self determination, they must practice the Divestment & Weaponization of White Power."
Here are a few more links to huge collections of resources
- White Allies Teaching about Racial Violence and White Supremacy
- 70 Race Resources for White People - Podcasts, books, articles, blogs to follow etc.
- Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–from Ferguson to Charleston
And a few thought provoking articles on the topic:
- How to Tell the Difference Between Real Solidarity and ‘Ally Theater’ "Real solidarity doesn’t require an audience to witness what a good “ally” you are [...] What we DO in solidarity is all that counts. How people with privilege listen to what marginalized groups ask of them and do that is all that counts."
- Transforming White Fragility Into Courageous Imperfection "If it feels difficult, and it does to me, you’re probably on the right track."
- What does it mean to be a white ally? "The idea of brave space is we want to be in a place that we challenge ourselves," Heidi continued. "In order for me to learn, I need to take risks—I need to be involved in difficult conversations and I need to sometimes say controversial things. We have to embrace the idea that this is challenging and difficult. Being uncomfortable is not the same thing as being unsafe."
- Why I am Skeptical of White Liberals in the Black Lives Matter Movement "Should white people be involved with Black Lives Matter? Absolutely. But we should do it with full awareness of the pain whiteness has caused us. Otherwise, we will subconsciously perpetuate the structures of oppression even as we are trying to fix them. As long as we think we are “being good people” whose primary goal in racial movements is to “help others”, we are buying into the mistaken belief that how we live life is better than how other people live life."
I'm still working my way through these extensive resources and just a few parts I'm currently struggling with are:
- Examining my own motivations each time I act - seeing when an action is motivated by guilt or ego or anything that feels like "helping"
- Figuring out when to listen and when to speak, I think this will be a constant struggle
- Resisting doing the easy actions... there are some actions that feel well within my comfort zone so I want to keep turning up the courage to do the more and more uncomfortable actions