Want a more just world Be an unlikely ally Dwinita Mosby Tyler
Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier
Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz
You can ask anyone you want,
and they will tell you
that they are sick and tired
of fighting for justice.
People of color and members
of the LGBT community are tired
of carrying the burden of speaking up
and stepping up
even when they’re being silenced
and pushed back down.
And white allies
and cis allies are tired, too.
Tired of being told they’re doing it wrong
or that it isn’t even their place
to show up at all.
This fatigue is impacting all of us.
And in fact,
I believe we won’t succeed
until we approach justice in a new way.
I grew up in the middle
of the civil rights movement
in the segregated South.
As a five-year-old girl,
I was very interested in ballet.
It seemed to be the five-year-old-girl
thing to do in the 1960s.
My mother took me to a ballet school.
You know, the kind of school
that had teachers
that talked about your gifts and talents
knowing that you’d never be a ballerina.
(Laughter)
When we arrived,
they said nicely that they
“did not accept Negroes.”
We got back in the car as if we were
just leaving a grocery store
that was out of orange juice.
We said nothing …
just drove to the next ballet school.
They said, “We don’t accept Negroes.”
Well, I was confused.
And I asked my mother
why they didn’t want me.
And she said, “Well, they’re just
not smart enough to accept you right now,
and they don’t know
how excellent you are.”
(Cheers)
(Applause and cheers)
Well, I didn’t know what that meant.
(Laughter)
But I was sure it wasn’t good,
because I could see it
in my mother’s eyes.
She was angry,
and it looked like she was
on the verge of tears.
Well, I decided right then and right there
that ballet was dumb.
(Laughter)
You know, I had lots of experiences
like that along the way,
but as I got older,
I started to get angry.
And not just angry
at the outright racism and injustice.
I was angry at people
that stood by and didn’t say anything.
Like, why didn’t the white parents
in that ballet school say
“Uh, that’s wrong.
Let that little girl dance.”
Or why –
(Applause)
Why didn’t the white patrons
in the segregated restaurants say
“Hey, that’s not right.
Let that family eat.”
Well, it didn’t take me long to realize
that racial injustice
wasn’t the only place
that people in the majority
were staying quiet.
When I’d sit in church and hear
some homophobic comment
being disguised as something scriptural,
I’d say, “I’m sorry,
why aren’t the heterosexual
churchgoers disrupting this nonsense?”
(Applause)
Or …
in a room filled with boomers and Gen-Xers
who started degrading
their millennial colleagues
as being spoiled, lazy and overconfident,
I’d say, “I’m sorry,
why isn’t someone my age
saying ‘stop stereotyping?'”
(Audience) Yes!
(Applause)
I was used to standing up
on issues like this,
but why wasn’t everyone else?
My fifth grade teacher,
Mrs. McFarland,
taught me that justice
requires an accomplice.
Not just anyone will do.
She said we need unlikely allies
if we want to see real change happen.
And for those of us
experiencing injustice up front,
we need to be willing to accept the help,
because when we don’t,
change takes too long.
I mean, imagine if heterosexual
and gay people had not come together
under the banner of marriage equality.
Or what if President Kennedy
just wasn’t interested
in the civil rights movement?
Most of our major movements
in this country might have been delayed
or even dead
if it weren’t for the presence
of unlikely allies.
When the same people speak up
in the same ways they’ve always spoken up,
the most we’ll ever get
are the same results
over and over again.
You know, allies often
stand on the sidelines
waiting to be called up.
But what if unlikely allies
led out in front of issues?
Like …
what if Black and Native American people
stood in front of immigration issues?
(Applause)
Or what if white people led the charge
to end racism?
(Applause and cheers)
Or …
what if men led the charge
on pay equity for women?
(Applause and cheers)
Or …
what if heterosexual people
stood in front of LGBTQ issues?
(Applause and cheers)
And what if able-bodied people advocated
for people living with disabilities?
(Applause and cheers)
You know, we can stand up for issues,
weigh in and advocate
even when it seems like the issue
has nothing to do with us.
And actually,
those are the issues
that are most compelling.
And sure,
people will have no idea
why you are there,
but that’s why those of us
facing injustice
must be willing to accept the help.
You know, we have to fight injustice
with a consciousness of grace.
When white guys stand up to fight
for the liberation
of Black and Brown people,
Black and Brown people will have to
be willing to accept their help.
And I know that’s complicated,
but this is collective work
and it requires everyone to be all in.
One day when I was at kindergarten,
our teacher introduced us
to this beautiful, tall,
white lady named Miss Ann.
I thought she was the prettiest
white lady I’d ever seen.
Well, if I can be honest with you,
I think it was the first time we’d ever
seen a white lady in our school ever.
(Laughter)
Miss Ann stood in front of us,
and she said she was going
to start teaching ballet classes
right there are our school
and that she was proud
to be our dance teacher.
It was unreal.
All of a sudden –
(sings) I didn’t think
ballet was dumb anymore.
(Laughter)
You see, what I know now
is Miss Ann was fully aware
that the white ballet schools
would not accept Black girls.
She was incensed by that.
So she came to the Black neighborhood
to start teaching
the dance classes herself.
And you know, it took love
and courage for her to do that.
(Applause)
And where there was no justice,
she just built it.
We all survived,
because we stood on the shoulders
of our Black ancestors.
We all thrived, because
Miss Ann was an unlikely ally.
You know, when you add your voice
and your actions
to situations that you
don’t think involve you,
you actually inspire others
to do the same.
Miss Ann inspired me
to always be on the lookout
for situations that weren’t about me
but where I saw injustice
and inequality happening anyway.
I hope she inspires you, too,
because to win the fight for equity
we will all need to speak up
and stand up.
We will all need to do that.
And we will all need to do that
even when it’s hard
and even when we feel out of place,
because it is your place,
and it is our place.
Justice counts on all of us.
Thank you.
(Applause and cheers)