Read on Twitter
What allies need to learn, and I’m not saying this was easy for me and I’m sure I still mess up, is that the most historically harmed populations do not owe you anything. This is not for trophies or “I am a good person.” https://twitter.com/amoytheemd/status/1340731234742353923
If you are expecting a “I’m so sorry to bother you but I just wanted to take the opportunity to maybe suggest - please forgive me if I am wrong - that you could consider a different perspective...” when receiving feedback, then you are making it about you and are not an ally.
Further, what is seen as an “attack” may not be an actual attack
but your own cultural expectations of “civility”
that, if one is imposing on others, needs to be internal work you do before engaging.
Do not enter DEI spaces only then to cudgel BIPOC https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/03/14/700897826/when-civility-is-used-as-a-cudgel-against-people-of-color
but your own cultural expectations of “civility”
that, if one is imposing on others, needs to be internal work you do before engaging.
Do not enter DEI spaces only then to cudgel BIPOC https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/03/14/700897826/when-civility-is-used-as-a-cudgel-against-people-of-color
@mdawriter is a great person to follow to learn how to recognize pattens in yourself and those around you. Before you rush in with all the answers, listen, learn, do some inner work. BIPOC are taking time to educate you. You need to “adult” and manage your own feelings/responses. https://twitter.com/mdawriter/status/1257023276100050945
No one is saying those who are allies have not themselves been traumatized. So this will be hard.
Hello, if it would not hard, we would not have had George Floyd’s cruel and tragic death happening >150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This would not be an issue.
Hello, if it would not hard, we would not have had George Floyd’s cruel and tragic death happening >150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This would not be an issue.
There are many layered reasons racism has not been solved. Broadly, though, majority of complex issues turn out to be more hard work for longer than most people are willing to do.
Add that people on #SoMe likely are more dopamine driven by default. https://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/up-and-down-with-ecologythe-issue-attention-cycle
Add that people on #SoMe likely are more dopamine driven by default. https://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/up-and-down-with-ecologythe-issue-attention-cycle
If you also are trying to chase popularity, clicks, followers, metrics, trends, hashtags rather than have any real, vested, human interest in progressive causes or equity, you will be unprepared for reality. If your “why” for “optics”, will likely give up.
Keep the focus human.
Keep the focus human.
Take this in the news. There is SO much to unpack. I doubt @timnitGebru’s bosses got up each a.m. with “let’s dehumanize!” yet did just that to the superstar they hired to ensure #AI worked for all humanity and identify to mitigate/eliminate bias https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/technology/google-researcher-timnit-gebru.amp.html
This is a funny #TikTok but my point here is that we are used to “narratives” about “suffering” that competes with or excludes others’ suffering
IF the goal is only attention/clicks.
There is no “club” to suffering or zero sum game. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJpD1A6M/
IF the goal is only attention/clicks.
There is no “club” to suffering or zero sum game. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJpD1A6M/
Similarly, if someone has suffered does not mean they have no joy or strengths. Beware of the “single story” and be aware of intersectionality.
Primitive mindsets create non-overlapping buckets of humans. Intelligence allows complexity.
Be intelligent. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en
Primitive mindsets create non-overlapping buckets of humans. Intelligence allows complexity.
Be intelligent. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en
Another amusing video.
Things are a bit more complex.
Complex things need deep listening, learning, reflection on a continuous loop.
Whether poverty in “Africa” or racism in America unsolved for centuries, you have to commit to the long haul. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJpA3yPo/
Things are a bit more complex.
Complex things need deep listening, learning, reflection on a continuous loop.
Whether poverty in “Africa” or racism in America unsolved for centuries, you have to commit to the long haul. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJpA3yPo/
If you are consistent, authentic, humble, have learning mindset, show respect to marginalized communities, you will begin to gain trust and even respect. This has to be earned. Too many have made false promises or gave up when they lacked personal incentives, grit, commitment.
Allies can choose to engage or choose to disengage. Others don’t get that choice.
If you give up when others have no other choice but to endure, yeah, that will be noted.
The issue is that too many with more societal privilege choose to opt out. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_the_strong_black_woman_identity_both_helps_and_hurts
If you give up when others have no other choice but to endure, yeah, that will be noted.
The issue is that too many with more societal privilege choose to opt out. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_the_strong_black_woman_identity_both_helps_and_hurts
You have to cultivate a mindset & moral core such that you experience moral injury & distress by opting out or silence
..greater than the distress you feel when things are hard or you have to sacrifice
Else silence or “civility” is too easy
Must feel an urgency
@DrOmolara https://twitter.com/dromolara/status/1229050343478132737
..greater than the distress you feel when things are hard or you have to sacrifice
Else silence or “civility” is too easy
Must feel an urgency
@DrOmolara https://twitter.com/dromolara/status/1229050343478132737
I have heard people say that of course @timnitGebru got fired over that email.
Thing is, what came before? How many did not speak up? Why did she have to write all this out in plain language? This kind of email is not written because of one thing. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-03/google-s-co-head-of-ethical-ai-says-she-was-fired-over-email
Thing is, what came before? How many did not speak up? Why did she have to write all this out in plain language? This kind of email is not written because of one thing. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-03/google-s-co-head-of-ethical-ai-says-she-was-fired-over-email
How many people remained silent? How many felt afraid of judgment or repercussions to their job if they spoke up?
Yes, you have to earn a living but that has to be balanced with constantly battling against what is unjust in the same system that provides your paycheck.
Yes, you have to earn a living but that has to be balanced with constantly battling against what is unjust in the same system that provides your paycheck.
There is a long history of allies abandoning Black women, especially other women seeking to advance selves. This needs to stop. Yes, being a woman is hard. There is sexism. POC who are not Black experience racism too. Still no excuse. https://twitter.com/usnehal/status/1267032439043567617
We need to stop leaving Black women behind. Reports are this is worsening in the #pandemic. https://www.payscale.com/compensation-today/2020/08/black-women-equal-pay-2020
While I am not Indian or Indian-American, many assume I am. So this applies somewhat. The so-called “model minority”, non-European immigrant communities, exists in part because of decades of civil rights activism by the Black community. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/01/the-making-of-a-model-minority/617258/
This is a widely used tactic to divide and maintain power per old structures. Whose need for a visa, to belong (vs #impostersyndrome), for status, for respectability can be exploited, cynically? https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/04/19/524571669/model-minority-myth-again-used-as-a-racial-wedge-between-asians-and-blacks
Yet we have Asian Americans investing their time in the WRONG battles https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/us/affirmative-action-harvard.amp.html
No, your straight A child did not lose “his” spot to the Black kid but to the legacy kid. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/10/23/nber-admissions-data/
This is often in the background of your mind when you can’t find the grit to stay an ally and do the hard work. On some level you have not yet found and eradicated all the forms of anti-blackness that has shaped your mind since childhood. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/11/18/group-non-black-scholars-invites-other-professors-help-strengthen-teaching-support
