Hello Meltingpot Community,
I have a pet peeve I want to share with you. And like my last pet peeve regarding the uppercase B when referring to Black people, this peeve also revolves around language. Can we please stop using the word ally to refer to non-Black people who want to join the fight for social and racial justice? We don’t need allies, we need equal partners if this revolution is going to be won.
The Definition of Ally
There are many definitions of ally, many of them associated with war. But the definition I think most white and white adjacent people are using is this one, from Dictionary.com, ” a person who associates or cooperates with another; supporter.” The key word being, “supporter.” When white and other non-Black people say they want to be good allies, I hear them saying they want to be good supporters of the Black people who are out here dying to try to stay alive. I hear, “We’ll support you while you do all of the hard work.” I hear, “I want to learn just enough but not everything, so I’ll never actually be expected to lead the battle myself.” I hear, “This is not really my fight, but I’m here to help any way I can.”
But as I’ve said many times before here on this blog and on my podcast, ‘white America, this is your fight!’ In fact, this is your war. This is the mess you made when you created a country based on a racist system and now the time has come to upend that system. And to put it in the most basic, clichéd way possible, “You made this mess, now you have to fix it.” When I think about it, actually, Black people should be trying to be white America’s ally. We will support you as you try to figure out how to undo the 400 years of racial violence and white supremacy you have inflicted upon generations.
Ally is an Excuse
At the end of the day, the term ally gives white and white adjacent people an easy excuse to take the day, or week, or decade off from the work. If we’re allies, we’re not frontline workers and we don’t have to be in the fight 100 percent, 24/7, like those poor Black people do. If we’re allies, we’re not to blame if things don’t actually change.
I mean, nobody ever blames the cheerleaders if the football team loses, right?
Claim the Title Freedom Fighter
I would like to see the groundswell of white Americans who are finally convinced that this is their moment, to reject the term ally and embrace the term freedom fighter instead. Yes, my melanin challenged freedom fighter, you may have a lot of make-up homework to do to learn and unlearn what Black people have been experiencing since 1619, but I believe in your abilities. And you may not be the general of every army or the platoon leader of every battle, but you could be if you stop hiding behind the word ally. I would love to see a white person lead the charge of making elementary school curricula accurately reflect the influence and impact of Black and brown people. I would love to see a white person hand out Black Lives Matter signs to their white neighbors and explain to them why they should proudly display them in their yard. I would love to see a white person take the lead on voter registration, police reform, and improving health care for women of color. (And please note: I know many, many white people are already doing this work.)
Equal Doesn’t Mean the Same
I know white people are being asked to silence their own voices in order to amplify Black voices. And that is a good thing. But allowing Black voices to be heard does not mean white people have to take a back seat in the battle moving forward. And it certainly doesn’t mean white people have to be told what to do before they can take action. There are so many things white Americans can (and should) do to start undoing racism, that goes beyond linking to a Black woman’s blog post as a good ally. Remember, this fight we’re talking about is not about fixing Black people, it’s about fixing this racist system that we have already ascertained, was created by white people. Black and non-Black people each have their own battles to fight and roles to play in this revolution that is only beginning to unfold. They’re equally important, but not the same. But if everyone does their part – with equal levels of input and energy – then change will definitely come. If white and white adjacent people insist on only being allies, then I fear we’ll be stuck in this sunken place for many more years.
What would you rather wear on a T-shirt? Ally or Freedom Fighter?
Let me know in the comments below.
Peace!
Comments
5 responses to “We Don’t Need “Allies” We Need Partners in this Fight”
Let us be honest. “Anti-Racism” has been perverted by rich, upper class whites and is being used as a political weapon against poor and working class white people with values that are considered “problematic” according to the new developed cultural norms of that upper class strata.
I feel awful for People of Color because these rich, bougie white trash have totally appropriated your honest, legitimate movement and weaponized it against less affluent whites and then claim that the white underclass had it coming because they are irredeemably racist.
I’m not a stupid man. I read progressive articles and magazines all over the spectrum and the ones written by white “allies” are the most vicious, cruel, and slanderous and they are always against one and only one target. The poor/working class that supposedly put Trump in office. The 59% of the Republican Party that is working class.
My enemy does not have a brown face. My enemy has a picture perfect white one. She carries a purse full of money privilege, an Ivy League Degree, a vicious sense of moral superiority and the ear of influential people who have decided that demographic genocide against poor whites is a perfectly acceptable outcome of “anti-racism”.
Your white “allies” think carrying out a vicious cultural cleansing of the working class/poor white person is in the best interests of the country in general, and black people in particular.
My question is: Does the black progressive feel the same way? Do you think it is in the best interests of America and black people in particular that poor/working class whites be culturally cleansed?
Freedom fighter for sure! I’ll support you making a shirt with that in it. 😉
Todd, I encourage you to read this book: me & white supremacy, how to be a good ancestor by Layla Saad. I’m reading it now. I think she brilliantly lays out a lot of these issues and then challenges her reader to answer questions about themselves.
As someone who too would love to see myself as an ally in the true sense of the word, this book, at times painfully, has pointed out my weak points and is encouraging me to do better.
Hi Laila,
The T-Shirt is coming! Also, thank you for sharing your experience with Layla Saad’s book and for doing the work on yourself first. So important! I got to meet Layla when she was on her book tour in Philly and she is wonderful.
LT
I am guilty of using the term ally as I (maybe falsely) assumed it was a term Black people used for white supporters. I understand words and terms matter. Unfortunately, terminology, like technology, seems to change constantly and it’s hard to keep up. Is “Freedom Fighter” universally accepted as the correct term, or a personal preference? Happy to refer to myself in whichever way is least offensive to the majority.
Secondly, I agree white people are responsible for cleaning up this mess. However, I disagree in generalizations. I do not personally agree, ‘we’ (white people) collectively made this mess. I wasn’t alive when this country was formed, nor have I ever supported this country’s social or racial injustice. We were born into a system that was already established. I feel this is on par with certain people’s assertion that protesters = looters. They are not interchangeable. IMO, those who ‘made this mess’ are dead and gone. Some white people continue to perpetuate it, but many have spoken up against it, although they may feel virtually powerless to change it. In my opinion, generalizations contribute to the Us vs. Them syndrome that has divided us on so many fronts.
I’m encouraged by the overall shift to make substantive change regarding the many injustices of this nation and I’m trying to be a part. This does involve all of us. We will benefit as a whole and we owe a great deal of gratitude to the BLM movement.
I am open to being educated where my viewpoint may be off-base.
Hi Todd,
Thanks for speaking up and sharing your thoughts. And I appreciate your willingness to learn new things and fight for equality.
I agree with Laila and might suggest you get a copy of Me and White Supremacy for further study.
That being said, I too hate generalizations. Particularly those that paint people with broad brush strokes. Like the ones where Black people are painted with every single negative attribute one could imagine, that then justifies police killing us, employers not hiring us, white people saying we’re not good enough to marry their children etc, etc.
I think we know that generalizations are just that and there are of course exceptions to every rule, but I stand by assertion that white people invented racism, white people continue to perpetuate racism and white people have to be the ones to destroy their creation.
Black people and other people of color have been hollering since creation for the end of racism, but it falls on deaf ears. We can’t protest our way to ending racism. Only white America can do that.
And I think you can. I know you can.
I hope white people do not get caught up in the blame game. To say white people invented racism does not mean individual white people today should be persecuted. It just means that white people have to look for solutions internally and not just externally as they get involved in this fight.
I hope that helps!