Being a white ally means showing up and listening
The following editorial was written by Catelyn Spencer, Development Officer at California ChangeLawyers.
I had just begun my freshman year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the fall of 2001. That September 11, I learned things about my own whiteness that I never could have expected.
I was a white kid who’d grown up in a socially responsible, but de-facto segregated community. I was aware of people who were different from me, but all my friends and the majority of the people I interacted with on a daily basis were white and Christian. I didn’t even know the word “Muslim” and the word “Islam” were related. It stings even now to look back on my own ignorance.
I wanted to understand why anyone would want to attack my country, so I signed up for a class called Sociology of the Islamic World. I got to work closely with two Muslim women, one from Pakistan and the other from my home state of North Carolina.
What I learned in that class went far deeper than “my country”. I learned to listen. I learned to take the back seat when discussing race and privilege. I saw the beauty in a world that wasn’t really about me or my country.
In the aftermath of yet another white man murdering people of color in their house of worship, I’m putting all those lessons I learned to work.
I will listen and I will acknowledge the past. My ancestors owned slaves, traveled to distant lands and claimed them as their own, silenced voices and destroyed lives. My ancestors designed laws with the idea that the world belongs to people who look like me.
I will show up. None of us can undo the wrongs of past generations, or the horrific acts that are being carried out today in the name of white supremacy. But all white people who call themselves allies to communities of color have a duty to show up. Showing up means: lifting up our non-white neighbors; leveraging our privilege for the good of the greater community; and standing with people of color, on the frontlines, to face hate and discrimination together.
Being a white ally means showing up, without taking over. My hope is that more white people learn to remove themselves and “their country” from the conversation. My hope is that more white people let the voices of people of color do the talking. My hope is that more white people put an end to the cycle of inequity that our ancestors created and that we, their descendants, benefit from.
