How To Be a Better Ally for The BIPOC Community

Activism
Written By Fay Ann Banawis
People of Color in America have endured racial injustice for far too long.
The repeated deaths within marginalized communities is a manifestation of history repeating itself, but this cycle can still be broken by our continued and collective effort to heal and protect each other and it is not too late to repair the fractured state of integrity in the United States. Gradual progress in awareness is made each year towards the need for change and racial justice. Though there is still a level of disconnect that permeates within the population that challenges our ability to sustainably move forward together. The misaligned values and definitions around equality have created pockets for resentment and violence to fester within large and small communities across the country and this issue must be addressed at an individual level to create an exponential impact towards change. Empowering ourselves through honest allyship can create an avenue for society to reconnect to the values that this country was supposedly built on. In the effort for building effective allyship, it can be difficult to discern how to best support the BIPOC Community, so let’s dig into definite ways you can start being an honest ally:  
  • Recognizing Your Own Privilege 
  • Speaking Up
  • Educating Yourself
  • Showing Up

Recognize Your Own Privilege

As a Filipina-American woman in the workforce I’ve experienced sincere but misguided attempts from colleagues to relate and get to know me; by approaching me with questions like “Are you Chinese?” or “You look too ethnic to be just American.” And “What’s it like being a Woman of Color in the office?”. These kinds of comments and questions reveal an assumption about who/what they think I am. While this type of behavior can seem harmless it can also perpetuate a tendency to make false judgements, if not corrected. When I’ve expressed the negative impact of how they approached me, the offender has either dismissed their statement as an “innocent misunderstanding” and/or they simply walked away due to their own discomfort. The normalization of this tendency for dismissiveness doesn't promote a true understanding of the ways that oppression affects marginalized people. 
Sometimes proclaimed allies express adoration as a badge of solidarity, but claiming solidarity doesn’t require being “nice” or civil towards BIPOC. It means putting in the effort to support the cause, developing self awareness, and truly identifying your own privilege and intersectionality; on the scales of wealth, whiteness, able-bodied advantages, heterosexualilty and maleness. These dynamics offer a dominating amount of privilege over marginalized people. Racial discrimination can be obscure as predominate privileges provide a thick filter to the reality of systemic racism and oppression... By addressing your own privilege as an ally it provides an opportunity for you to break that filter and improve self awareness. When you begin to reflect on these dynamics, it enriches your ability to understand how your individual experience benefits from systemic realities. 
Being a woman of color does not make me exempt from the same responsibility. There was a time in my life where the need for assimilation and safety in society left me feeling embarrassed of being Filipina. I was othered amongst my peers and thought it best to remove myself from my cultural heritage in order to fit in. I’d spent a good portion of my life desensitizing my values and permitting discrimination upon myself and the people I loved, with a daft belief that it would offer me a place in society. I had been afraid to educate myself because I was overwhelmed with my own compacted guilt, but the weight of my own discomfort had never surmounted the deeply ingrained racist affliction the black, indigenous and immigrant communities STILL face. And I realize now that my feelings of guilt were from knowing that I chose to stay silent and do nothing for too long. 
It’s important to know that no matter how much we believe we have failed ourselves, it is never too late to stand up and change, to resolve, to heal, and learn together. Addressing the un-earned comforts we have is never comfortable and the work that must be done as BIPOC and allies is not for the faint hearted. Acclimating ourselves to being uncomfortable is the element of bravery required for real and actionable change. Once we start walking in this direction we begin to notice the difference between subtle and overt oppression, communal microaggression, and we are able to utilize our privilege in a way that can effectively strengthen the foundation for true equality and justice.

Speak Up

Entering a conversation around racism and oppression can feel like slipping into a giant bowl of spaghetti. Speaking up for what’s right isn’t easy and is often met with resistance where conversations can turn into heated debates. As an ally, you might encounter those whose ignorance perpetuates bigotry and systemic racism. But despite the ignorance, those same people could also have the capacity to be receptive and willing to learn. Speaking up as an ally doesn’t mean you have to hold space and coddle bigots. Nor does it mean subjecting yourself to verbal altercations with people who have no respect for you, or what you have to say. The art of effectively addressing overt and subtle racism in conversation creates an impact towards change through objective discussions with those who will listen. There may be seemingly failed conversations where the amount of patience and insight you’ve put in isn’t met with compassion and you might even find yourself feeling depleted or bitter that the outcome was not what you’d hoped for. Please trust that your efforts still hold value because even a seemingly failed conversation could transform previous ignorance into active awareness. Your voice is such a powerful tool to plant seeds of change in others and in yourself.  

Educate Yourself

Before you get involved it is crucial that you understand the nuance of being an ally to marginalized peoples so you’ll need to guide yourself through continued research. Resolving the lack of knowledge on the levels of racism and oppression is really the first step to effective allyship. Cultivate an understanding of the frameworks, idealisms, history and what effective change is as an ally within the movement today. If you have very close friends and family within the BIPOC community who are willing and open to help educate you, that could be one of the best resources. But please be mindful about inquiring among BIPOC friends and colleagues and be respectful if they decline, as it is not their responsibility to educate you.  There is an abundance of great books written by BIPOC authors like Assata Shakur’s autobiography, If They Come For Us by Fatima Asghar and There There by Tommy Orange. But if biographies and novels aren’t your preference, you can check out: 

Show Up + Support

We’ve already touched on the fact that movements and change aren’t built on bumper stickers and that using your voice or platform in an uneducated manner offers a hollow contribution towards the cause. Showing up and supporting as a BIPOC ally is a lifelong evolution of intentional effort - It requires taking the actions that support your words. Enabling and promoting cyclical wealth in BIPOC communities is a very simple act that assists in the development of generational prosperity. You can encourage a plane of equality by supporting, buying from, and donating to Black, Indigenous and Immigrant owned businesses and platforms. Raise the active awareness amongst people, minimize bias, promote inclusion in your own circles, amplify BIPOC voices, attend and engage yourself at events/discussions/working groups.
Allyship is an opportunity to learn and grow while nurturing trust and safety for all of us on this planet. Our collective effort as BIPOC and allies can amplify the narratives that have been historically excluded and can help sustain a better future. The work we do now can change the lives of our children today and the generations that follow them. 

“It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act."

- the fourteenth Dalai Lama

Where you can help/Get Involved:

Fay Ann Banawis
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