Yo. So I made a pretty embarrassing comment on a Speakeasy post a few weeks ago, and it sorta caused me to rethink my stance on white-allyness. For the purpose of conversation, I’m gonna paste a fb post I made about it.

“Hi friends. So I was That White Person infringing on a POC space last night. I was called out on it (mostly nicely) but it was sort of an aha moment for me. I have been a part of the problem. I have placed my feelings about injustice at higher importance than the feelings of those who experience it. Especially right now, with the protesting against police brutality and institutionalized racism, a lot of us find ourselves in a place where we want to help but don’t know how. I know this isn’t the group topic, but I figure we’re pretty socially-conscious people.
For non-POC: let’s make sure we intensify black voices, not drown them out. Being an ally isn’t about us.
For POC: let us know how we can help. And please know that we have good intentions, even when we mess up.”

A QPOC friend commented the following:
“You phrased this perfectly. A friend and I were talking the other day about how it’s frustrating that “allies” of the movement will sometimes get up on stage at a rally and say “in my experience” and that’s just not right. While of course you should care and want to help, it isn’t about you… Helping, by the way, is a function of awareness and increasing others’ awareness of their own personal behaviours. That is all.”

Thoughts? Does what I and/or the commenter say resonate with the way you understand our role as white allies?