Black lives dont need performative allies

[Music]

so

how do we solve racism

well it appears that following the death

of george floyd

white people had the answer finally

some uploaded black lives matter posts

here

some added blm and a blackest emoji to

their bios and tweets

and others did this they replaced their

smiling white faces with a black box

for one day maybe two maybe a week

performance for the ceos executive board

members and the lack

did your corporation or organization

scramble to throw together a solidarity

statement for your website

during the summer of 2020.

maybe an email went out to all of your

employees and constituents

stating your company’s efforts towards

addressing

and combating systematic racism

that included goals that simply weren’t

measurable

did you say and do these things while

your black essential employees

remain unjustifiably underpaid compared

to their white counterparts

nope that’s right you removed antamia

and uncle ben from the grocery store

shelves

but let the racist gm’s and hiring

managers keep their job

performing no i didn’t forget about the

cities with

confederate residuals painting black

lives matter on their streets and

buildings but doing very little if

anything at all to reform their

problematic police departments that are

quite frankly

murdering black people performing

all things that no one asked for but

brianna taylor’s murderers are still

walking free and it hasn’t even been a

full

year about 10 months to be exact since

george floyd’s murder was recorded for

the world to see

and many of these allies who were so

digitally invisible and vocal on our

timelines

back then where are they today

they’re on to the next trinity topic

you see that’s a part of the problem

people are calling themselves

allies when it’s trending to be an ally

hopping in and out of centuries of black

oppression

when it’s convenient oh

so you can convince yourself that you

must be an anti-racist because you

shared a post online

while black people wake up every day and

live this gothic reality from the moment

our feet hit the page

now i like to think that i can speak on

behalf of most black people when i say

while your intentions may be thoughtful

there’s nothing we can do with your

performative ally

now for clarity so i can break it down

for you

performative allyship is when someone

from a non-stigmatized

group publicly performs their support

and solidarity

with a stigmatized group but you see

their

support is performed in such a way that

is only beneficial to themselves

and themselves only and it typically

doesn’t produce any tangible

or quantifiable results for that group

that they publicly claim to support

it’s important to note that my former

professional experiences in broadcast

media along with my current role as a

doctoral student

studying media technology and race how

it’s given me somewhat of a unique

perspective

to critically analyze media and its many

accordances and i’ve noticed that we’re

seeing

more and more of this performative ally

ship with the vast emergence of digital

and participatory media

like facebook instagram and twitter

so i’m thinking about this and the

trendiness

of it all i’ve come to the realization

that there are two types of performative

allies

now the first type of allies who

genuinely

they genuinely want to support and they

have good intentions

but they aren’t aware that they need to

move their allies from being

performative

to being more proactive and productive

for the group

that they wish to support so a mass

email

post comment like hashtag retweet on

social media

is not enough you can’t stand in

solidarity with

black bodies but be unwilling to do the

work to elevate

your allies further you can’t keep

asking black bodies to help you do that

agonizing

stressful emotional labor

but since i’m already this far into this

talk i’ll just go ahead and take one for

the team

now the second type of performative

allies are the ones who are strictly

doing it for the attention

it’s the reward that they get their

allyship is rooted in their ego

in perceived self-concept so it is the

likes shares retweets hashtags on social

media

that drives their performance for their

support of black bodies

because you know blackness is always

trending these are the type of people

from what i’ve noticed that go back when

no one’s looking

in delete posts and tweets because

they’re really not about that life

so ask yourself right now do your

friends your family your

co-workers do you fall into either of

these two categories

and if you are even the slightest bit

offended

at what i’m saying right now i’m

probably talking to you

my mom would always say

so i’m talking to the self-proclaimed

allies who are

talking loud but doing nothing

in fact there’s this push to do away

with the term

ally because what we really need

are accomplices folks who are willing

and ready to

shake some tables you can’t stand in

solidarity with black islands but only

show up when a black man or black woman

is

killed by the police

and metaphorically every single day

embedded into this

racist system so we need accomplices

to here in america recent research

has found that doctors are less likely

to order blood tests ct scans and x-rays

for little black children when compared

to white children and black women are

three to four times more likely to die

from pregnancy-related causes than white

women in the us

so call out your friends and family who

express

questionable if not outright racist

views that hide beneath those white lag

you see we need accomplices to fix this

country’s school funding that’s tied to

property tax revenues

which neighborhoods do you think have

the poorest schools

speak up and show up to those school

board meetings because

the racial education gaps that already

exist in this country are only going to

widen

and worsen after this pandemic

we need accomplices to help put healthy

food on the

who tables of black deserts who have to

rely

on convenience stores and gas stations

to feed their families

to accomplish this speak up and show up

to your city council meeting and call

out

your city planning commissions

and one of the most important places you

can be an accomplice is in your very

own living room you know when your

grandmother you know

will you just justify their comments and

behaviors with

well that’s just how they are they’re

just stuck in their ways

let me ask you this when your car gets

stuck

in the ice or in the mud do you just

paint your car because it suck or do you

get out of your car

and push until it’s no longer stuck

maybe it’s not your depreciating car is

more valuable to you

than your self-proclaimed ally

so you say black lives matter but not

enough to call out your racist family

and not enough to have uncomfortable

conversations with your coworkers

because

you risk losing relationships

well i risk losing my life we’re not the

same

and again while your intentions may be

in the right place

it’s not the thought that counts anymore

it’s the action

i’d like to leave you with a few words

from american studies scholar george

lipids lippitt says that you are either

a part of the solution

or you are a part of the problem there

is no

in between and white people can only

become a part

of the solution when they

realize and recognize the degree to

which they are already a part of the

problem

but not because of race it’s because of

your possessive

investment in it

and as we all know the first step to

fixing any problem

is it mean that you have one humbly

every institution has been designed to

benefit you

you are the beneficiary on every single

policy

simply because you were born white

and while you are not solely responsible

for building these unjust institutions

if you want to call yourself an ally my

ally

our allies in accomplice to justice and

equality

you are solely responsible for breaking

them

[Music]

you