Allyship is an active and consistent practice of using power and privilege to achieve equity, collaboration, and justice while holding ourselves accountable. It is essentially equity in practice.
Allyship is not a claimed identity. It is not passive — it requires going beyond believing in the values of diversity, collaboration, and equity and actively living those values through concrete actions and behaviors is different.
It is practiced consistently and renewed with each act of allyship.
Allyship requires an understanding and self-awareness around power and privilege. As explored in the positionality section, we all have a unique set of privileges that affords us special access and immunity that others may not have. Allyship is a tool to begin to close the gap by strategically using our positions.
In anti-racism work we need people who face less risks to take on more risks to disrupt harm. Studies have found that when women or people of color advocate for diversity, they face negative repercussions — they are seen as self-serving and disruptive, while the opposite is true for white men, for example. With allyship, people with privilege are taking on the burden of challenging the status quo, so those without aren’t the only ones fighting the battle and again too often with little to no resources to do so. All of us are impacted by systemic oppression in one way or another, whether as folks who presently benefit from the structure or as people directly oppressed by it.
Allyship in the workplace denotes challenging the status quo and advancing equity while working within and with the current power structures.
Do not be afraid to make mistakes, listen to the feedback and know to adjust behavior based on the feedback. Re-educate yourself. Addressing inequity is everyone’s issue, and we each have a part to do. Remembering the system's lens. Even our own perspectives emerge from systemic inequality. Address the system through which we operate, not the individual. As long as we keep on re-adjusting, we are supporting addressing systemic change.
This is also equity in practice, and fundamentally and incrementally changing the narrative, matter of factly, challenging the status quo as a system is easier when we have the possibility to ally collectively toward the shared goal of inequity. Actively doing the internal work, and perpetuating it outward is one way to look at it. Decolonizing perspectives is the action, starting with our own belief systems, and healing from centuries of erroneous value gauging perspective.
The hope is that once we have these tools and understanding, at least the fundamentals because it is a living journey, then we can begin to change the narrative that fundamentally changes the processes. There is no reason why any sector would not fundamentally consider equity within their structure when individuals understand the concepts of
intrinsic value, positionality, intersectionality and allyship.
Some examples of allyship in practice:
Do not be afraid to make mistakes, listen to the feedback and know to adjust behavior based on the feedback. Re-educate yourself. Addressing inequity is everyone’s issue, and we each have a part to do. Remembering the system's lens. Even our own perspectives emerge from systemic inequality. Address the system through which we operate, not the individual. As long as we keep on re-adjusting, we are supporting addressing systemic change.
The Anti-oppression Network Provides more details on allyship and resources for doing anti-oppression work
Women and Minorities Are Penalized for Promoting Diversity, Harvard Business Review This article explores the perpetuation of inequality in the workplace and why allies are necessary to change the status quo
The Guide to Allyship This is a one page guide to becoming an effective ally
Allyship - The Key To Unlocking The Power Of Diversity This article from Forbes discusses representation in technology and allyship
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