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A Fellow Citizen; Not an Ally
One of the noxious, new phrases we’ve had the pleasure of learning in the past several years is “white ally.” If you’re a white person that somehow manages not to be a racist, then congratulations – you’re a white ally.
Well, being a white dude, I don’t accept the demotion. Americans of all colors are fellow citizens. I don’t accept being demoted to the arms-length position of “ally.” Citizenship status aside, if you want me to be your ally in opposing racism, then I won’t be demoted there, either. I may not be an activist, but I’m no outsider to the notion of racial equality. I’m not some hapless white boy who suddenly “got woke” and realized there is racism in the world. I’ve been for racial equality all along. I take no credit for it. My parents raised me that way, and I’ve read the Bible.
Here’s the deal, Jack. If you’re an activist for racial equality, and if you wouldn’t think of calling non-whites “allies,” then don’t call me that, either. If you’re treating me differently because of my skin color, then maybe you’re the outsider to the cause.
Published in Culture
Good luck with that…and I’ll be seein’ ya at the “white ally only” drinking fountain one these days.
This is incorrect, Joshua. I’m an academic, so I’ve had the training. It’s not enough to not “be a racist.” To be a “white ally,” you must be “anti-racist.” (Imagine a white woman with reading glasses on her sad face shrugging in her corner of the world.)
It’s hard to keep up with the rules, but that’s the state of play. ;)
I think part of earning the “ally” is labeling of non-allies as “racist”. It is a binary assignment. You are either labeling people as bad and an ally or you are the bad person. There cannot be an “us” without a “them”. Standard Marxist theory.
And doesn’t being “anti-racist” mean you must judge people based on what group(s) (racial, sex, etc) they fit into?
Well yeah, if look at a person and see anything other than their race then you are a lousy anti-racist.
Yeah, I know. That would actually have been a much more accurate way of stating it. If you’re opposed to racism, you’re not an ally. You’re not an ally until you adopt the racist “anti-racism” of the Left.
From the people I have known personally who take part in activist marches, etc., there is very much a self-congratulatory spirit about them. Street activism is as much about the activists as it is about any particular issue.
“Ally” is used by the “woke” for other “us” and “them” categories besides race.
My perception of the current use of the term is that being an “ally” is a categorical demotion as a human being. The group being allied to is clearly represented to be the dominant party in the transaction. The “ally” must accept the terms of the dominant group or party.
If you are the “white ally” in a racially-based cause, you are the subservient participant. If you are the “heterosexual ally” in a sexual-orientation-based cause, you are the subservient participant. If you are the “cis-[whatever] ally” in a “transgender” cause (I have great trouble keeping track of the terminology of the anti-biology group), you are the subservient participant.
By accepting a role as the “ally” you are accepting a subservient role.
But some of my best friends are…
Yes, this is the difficulty in talking about race, non-racism and anti-racism these days. Their meanings have been inverted, so that, for example, when one says he’s not racist this means “racist” to the … modern racists.
Thanks for the comments. I’ve been wondering if I’m the only one that feels this way.
Isn’t a “white allies only” event among other things a “whites only” event, and didn’t that used to be bad?
You noticed that too, huh?
And nothing wins respect more than telling your BIPOC friends that they can’t vote for Trump.
Like @Lois Lane, I was an academic for many years and had to suffer through innumerable “trainings.” The term “white ally” is new to me, but I saw a lot of examples of how one could achieve that status even as early as 1971. The state was achieved when you demeaned, not only your personal “whiteness” but whiteness in general. You denied the value of your family, culture, society, religion, and, of course, all of you colleagues who shared your color. In essense, you groveled before people of color asking to be forgiven for what you were born as. I always found this a bit much, and the fact that it was smiled upon by the facilitators, as being a bit racist in itself, judging one by the color of one’s skin. Ultimately, you could only gain temporary absolution, never to be fully trusted, because who can ever trust someone who denies their own kind. There was a quality to the exercise that harkens back to the Jacobins of the French Revolution and the show trials following the Russian Revolution, and even to the Inquisition. We all know what happened to so many of those “converts”. In Spain they were called Maranos, pigs, once they had given up their disgusting Judaism. Does anyone really believe that becoming an “ally” really gives you a pass. It never will. The demands will grow, and ultimately, you will fail to meet them since they are designed to prove that no one can be saved, no one is redeemable. Your color is the mark of Cain.
Similar thrusts are going on in industry. We have “ally” programs for almost everything now. I’m waiting for an “ally ally” program before I jump in…or maybe the “ally ally ally” program. We’ll see…
I’m not interested in being an ‘ally’ unless there is a) a war, and b) I have a sense that I would be allying with the right side.
While I am in favor of people of color or alphabet having the same rights as anyone else, when we get down to specifics and tactics I find that I am not always in agreement – particularly when I look at what BLM posts, or the effects of gay rights on BSA.
So no, I’m not your ally – though I will likely be in your corner when your cause is just.
The degree of self abnegation that is required of white people by the left these days is every bit as obscene as anything that Bull Conner did to blacks.