Allyship: What does it really mean?

"“…politics, religion, the workplace, domestic households, intimate relations- should and could have as their foundation a love ethic. A love ethic presupposes that everyone has the right to be free, to live fully and well. To bring a love ethic to every dimension of our lives, our society would need to embrace change." --Bell Hooks

What does it mean to be an Ally?

To people who work on Diversity and Inclusion it means something like "Support" or "Help" or "Standing with" a marginalized group. But even a cursory search for a definition of what it means to be an ally will return many different descriptions. For a word that was Dictionary.com's Word of the Year in 2021, "Allyship" has almost as many definitions as it has Google search results.. The most widely used definition comes from Nicole Asong Nfonoyim-Hara, the Director of the Diversity Programs at Mayo Clinic:

“When a person of privilege works in solidarity and partnership with a marginalized group of people to help take down the systems that challenge that group’s basic rights, equal access, and ability to thrive in our society.”

In other words to be an Ally is not a noun, it's a verb. It isn't (just) a pin you wear, it is a habit of mind, a way you live your life.

What that means, first and foremost, is that an ally recognizes they occupy a place of privilege that others are denied by virtue of who they are, and they work to change that status quo. An Ally is aware of who is not at the table, not in the room, not part of the process, and they make it a priority to change that.

It is also not a description we give ourselves. It is given to us by those who we want to support, who recognize our efforts. And to be an ally is also to recognize our own power and privilege and accept responsibility for our own role in creating change.

One of the best explorations of Allyship comes from the Anti-Oppression Network, which defines it as: "an active, consistent, and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating, in which a person in a position of privilege and power seeks to operate in solidarity with a marginalized group,"

Their discussion of the roles and responsibilities of the Ally is good blueprint for anyone wondering "how do I even start to help?" and a guide for those of us who have been working to be allies to check ourselves against in our "active, consistent, and arduous practice of unlearning and re-evaluating."

https://theantioppressionnetwork.com/allyship/