The concept of the White Ally is bankrupt. One cannot be an ally to a category of people. To speak the words “I am a White Ally to people of color” is to commit an act of double speak, to internalize non-sense. There is no singular black voice that can be listened to, no authentic community leadership which to follow. There are only many different people with different ideas, life experiences and perspectives. To think otherwise, to think that all black people share a common opinion is extremely problematic, one might even say racist. One can be an ally to individuals though there are other words in the English language which describe this relationship with more grace: friend, lover, partner and sometimes cellmate or co-defendant.
Anti-State STL,
Another Word for White Ally is Coward
(via
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The concept of any kind of Ally to any oppressed population never made any sense.
You are either an Ally to a specific organization in which case you do some kind of substantial thing for that organization.
Or you are against a specific thing, for example: racism. If the latter, than you need to decide what that means and how you work against that. One way may be to be an Ally to a specific organization but in that case you need to decide which organization to support. You don’t get to sit back and let others decide your morals for you.
And others may disagree with you and may even say that you are furthering the thing you oppose. Tough shit. It’s part of having opinions.
If you decide to shelter yourself from criticism and do as little independent thinking as possible by following whatever it seems like the majority of an oppressed group wants, the only certainty you’ll have is that you will not be in a movement where change is made.
