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
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