Being a good ally takes effort and work and understanding. We can all play a part, but it means we have to be brave, and sometimes bold. It may also mean confronting our own discomforts in ways that may require readjusting things that have been part of ourselves for decades. With all that 2020 has wrought, one of the silver linings may be a reckoning with our collective bias and the racism that is a product of growing up in America. It’s there within almost every single one of us, and the first step in eradicating it is examining and owning up to it. To have been raised in this country is to be unwittingly part of systemic racism in some form. When you realize that – when you realize it’s not your fault as long as you make a concerted effort to grow and change – it suddenly loses its shame, and you can find a greater integrity and honor by living an actively antiracist life. We have that choice in more ways and at more opportunities than we know.
Ahsante the Artist offers the following steps on how to be a good ally, which is a great place to begin.
- Listen and Educate yourself
- Uplift marginalized voices
- Speak up
- Respect safe spaces
- Get to work
