A guide to lifelong allyship
[Music]
i have good news
and bad news good news is
after watching this talk you can
download a certificate
making you an official ally acting in
solidarity with marginalized groups of
people
bad news is that’s not true
allyship isn’t an identity you can
obtain like a
like a costco membership it’s a lifelong
journey
and it must begin in the body
i learned this in 2017 during a speech
by black playwright
donna michelle saint bernard where she
encouraged white folks to
look behind them to see who trailed them
because of the space they occupied
artistically economically socially
i sat behind a white man with his hands
behind his head
leaning back so he was inches from my
face and he
rigorously nodded to show he was
progressive
exasperated my stage whispered move
your arms we can’t see look
behind you and he sat up lowered his
arms
and to nod at donna michelle’s speech
this moment taught me that allyship
means
nothing if it doesn’t start from the
body
embodied allyship means believing
with your whole body that each of us
does deserve to live
and love equally and to live those
beliefs
everywhere from conversations to
organizational structures
to government policies
my name is catherine hernandez and i’m a
writer
after surviving abuse from a theater
institution where
my stories as a brown woman were
devalued and dismissed
i committed to decolonizing my practice
for over two decades i have worked to
empower marginalized artists to
trust their ability to tell their truth
in a world that focuses
on white able-bodied
heterosexual lives to foster their
safety
i also create a world in which they are
held with respect
and that means i have to wade through
countless difficult conversations
to encourage sincere and sustainable
change
and that’s far from easy for any of us
let’s try an experiment if you’ve
witnessed a racialized person
being harassed and you didn’t intervene
pat your head
if a disabled person called you out on
not including them
and you denied your responsibility feel
the weight
of your elbow in your hand
if you witnessed the black lives matter
protests
and you did nothing feel your hands on
your belly
if you were too uncomfortable to follow
any of these instructions
try blinking your eyes
what sensations are you feeling right
now
yeah these are real and by design
in ways that may seem insignificant
white supremacy affects our bodies in
substantial ways
it teaches people from birth to
disconnect from their bodies
and from the painful truth around them
some lives are valued more than others
when i have these conversations with
privileged people
i see a range of reactions
uh redditing of the face like i’ve been
found out
a tightening of the lips like
not me i need facts prove my privilege
to me
disassociation i’m just gonna tune out
until this brown lady goes away and
crying feels sorry for me
those knee-jerk reactions are an
opportunity
for true change civil unrest is the
price we pay for superficial
relationship building
true allyship is a combination of
critical analysis
and body awareness but
what would it take to get people to
embody allyship
this was a question i explored while
writing my second novel
it’s about racialized queer trans
disabled and elderly folks learning
to take arms against a fascist regime in
a context
where these people are put into
workhouses after environmental
and financial devastation it was
difficult
to imagine how allies could change the
tide
i was inspired by my partner naz batom
as a generative somatics practitioner
naspa teaches
gestures and movements that help people
improve their relationships to others
and to
heal from trauma movements are practiced
regularly to help people
do things such as communicate and set
boundaries
and i thought can people practice
movements
to learn allyship i imagined allies
doing movements while
speaking the following creed
when i do not act i am complicit
when i know wrong is happening i act
when the oppressed tell me i am wrong i
open my heart
and change when change is led by the
oppressed
i move aside and uplift
since white supremacy is instilled
in us daily any counter practice would
have to also be daily much like
committing to a practice of yoga or
binge watching a tv show to begin
your daily practice of allyship let’s
wake up our bodies
let’s consider the first two lines of
the allyship creed
when i do not act i am complicit
when i know wrong is happening i act
almost a year ago i saw four
cop cars surround one
unarmed black woman
they handcuffed her over a traffic
violation
i felt frozen
in denial to move past
this i had to repeat the lines from the
creed over
and over again i was witnessing police
brutality
i wish i could tell you that i
immediately
intervened but i grew up surrounded
by anti-black sentiments i was taught
that we
were the better brown people because we
were hard working
i had to fight through the shame in my
chest
and the stiffness in my arms to record
the altercation on my phone
recognizing what i felt in my body is
what helped me center this woman’s
safety
let’s do a gesture that embodies these
first two lines when
i do not act i am complicit
when i know wrong is happening i act
let’s remember the sensation of
embarrassment
and shame it creates in our bodies
it’s not a fraction as shameful as being
oppressed
moving on to the next line when the
oppressed tell me i am wrong
i open my heart and change
it takes humility to be checked on our
privilege
who taught us that our opinions our
actions our presence
is more important than others let’s
do a gesture that embodies the line
when the oppressed tell me i’m wrong
i open my heart and change
let’s remember the sensation of being
wrong
it’s a fraction of the shame you feel
when you are silenced
forgotten by history
moving on to the next line when change
is led by the oppressed i move aside and
uplift
an effort to cover our shame we may take
up space in
social justice movements by performing
rather than
embodying allyship showcasing
our charity crying
talking over oppressed people what is
the cost of our invisibility in those
movements
let’s do a gesture that embodies that
line
when change is led by the oppressed i
move aside
and uplift
it may feel empty passing energy to
others
but it’s a fraction of what oppressed
people feel when their identities
their labor are stolen
let’s do all the movements while saying
the creed
are you ready
when i do not act i am complicit
when i know wrong is happening i act
when the oppressed tell me i am wrong i
open my heart
and change when change is led by the
oppressed
i move aside and uplift
good
you are a feeling human being
you have the ability to stop performing
and start
acting to believe with your whole
body that each of us deserve to live and
love equally
let’s practice these movements every day
let’s use these movements to create
revolutions in our interactions
both big and small
[Music]