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]