Anand Atre is an alum of the MLA Program at Johns Hopkins University.
invited editorial
The Road to Allyship
Anand Atre, Johns Hopkins University
Note. This editorial was invited by the Editor.
Less than a month after police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd by asphyxiating him, millions of Instagram users made their stories a black square accompanied by posting #BlackLivesMatter. The social media action was criticized, with movement organizers, popular media, and academics dismissing it as performative, unhelpful, and not in solidarity with the actual social justice movement.[1],[2] The reprovals led to notable publications from inside and outside academia contemplating and providing guidelines on how best to become a “white” ally.[3]Prominent themes included educating oneself, speaking out against racism, redistributing resources, and recognizing the harms of racial divisions. These themes constitute the foundations for building coalitions to stimulate politics of change. When it comes to reflecting on allyship, given the ends sought along with how we classify members of society, there is no way of avoiding identity politics.
Identity politics relate to socio-cultural movements seeking protection, recognition, rights, and sometimes reparations for historically marginalized groups. An understanding of identity politics is vital to comprehending how the status quo norms institutionalized and internalized by society continue to repress its marginalized members in multiple ways. Accordingly, identity politics are heuristics that help us understand the chasm between the privileged and marginalized.
On the other hand, it is an egregious mistake to presume that there is an invariable commonality among people’s perspectives just because of their shared collective identity. To illustrate this gaffe, consider whether Amy Coney Barrett speaks for all White American women, whether Clarence Thomas speaks for all Black American men, whether Clarence Thomas and Ta-Nehisi Coates have aligned perspectives on social justice, and whether Alan Dershowitz and Norman Finkelstein share the same socio-political views.
Like nationalism, identity labels hinge on the supposition of an imagined[4] familial community forged together in unity. However, the diversity across an identity suggests that it is reductionist to talk about identities allegedly encapsulating the collectivity of shared experiences of all its members. Although there might be commonalities, “e pluribus unum” is nothing more than a performative slogan amounting to a noble lie[5]seeking to hold imagined communities and identities together.
Acknowledging individuals as not homogenous and having multiple identities leads one toward the notion of intersectionality.[6] This compelling framework facilitates understanding how the combination of social categories converges to create distinctive lived experiences of privilege and marginalization. The benefit of intersectionality is that it avoids fixating on a single aspect of our identity and instead recognizes common ground. The beauty of this approach is that the cross-sectional identities evoke a humanistic spirit. Intersectionality does not classify us by continuing to isolate us by identities.
Nevertheless, consider how identical twins who grew up in the same household can have different personalities. Scientists attribute these differences to childhood stressors,[7] epigenetic differences,[8] and parental rearing practices,[9] among other reasons. Intersectionality may get us closer, but the approach falls short of appreciating the uniqueness of an individual’s experiences.
One method of closing the gap is the type-token distinction used in various branches of philosophy. Types are entities with multiple instances, whereas tokens are concrete instances of the type. In the context of identity politics, types are our group identities, and tokens are who we are as individuals. Applying this abstraction to think about humans differs from Linnaeus’ taxonomy because, unlike the latter, it does not isolate ourselves into mutually exclusive types. As individuals, we are all unique tokens, classifiable under multiple different types, constituting our identity’s multi-faceted dimensions. Amidst all our diverse and varied identities, we all fall within a single type that unites us: human beings. Accordingly, every type has a familial resemblance with each other.
Genuine allyship entails a willingness to recognize the human type and stand in solidarity with humanity. The bedrock of allyship requires empathizing with those who are marginalized, championing social justice, leveraging privilege, and being prepared to work toward rectifying power imbalances. Awareness of privilege and marginalization across types, along with the nuance of context from intersectionality, are essential. However, the uniqueness of individuals means that an understanding of identity politics is necessary for allyship but can never be entirely sufficient. At the same time, although contact with an individual from a marginalized group facilitates diminishing personal biases and prejudices, not everything we know about a specific human token is generalizable to their identity type. Cognizance of these shortcomings leads to intellectual humility in both allyship and speaking on behalf of one’s identity.
Even amid ever-increasing polarization, many agents are willing to leverage their privilege and ally with marginalized groups in society. However, their initiatives could easily backfire because actions construed as undertakings in solidarity could just as easily be denigrated as performative.
Let us reconsider the millions of Instagram users who, in June 2020, made their stories a black square. Imagine one such user who did so, risking social and even familial isolation because solidarity with BLM was an unpopular sentiment in their social circle. Is it reasonable to belittle their intent and dismiss their action as performative? It behooves us to not make sweeping generalizations about the intent behind the postings. Given the battles that marginalized groups in societies face from hegemonic actors who continue to subjugate them, prejudging intent as performative or insincere risks impeding any hope for allyship.
Within liberal studies, we can express solidarity and allyship with identities who experience various forms of discrimination and subjugation through our writings. Disseminating our ideas on different platforms and in multiple ways draws attention to rectifying the injustices experienced by marginalized groups and improving their lived experiences. On the other hand, we will make mistakes; we will inadvertently misappropriate, oversimplify, and do things that backfire. Unwarrantedly assuming that we understand the lived experience of the marginalized groups we are not a part of will increase the likelihood of these mistakes.
Individuals with an aspect of their identity that corresponds to marginalized groups are the only ones with an internal point of view of a lived experience as that identity. Genuine allyship from individuals having privileged identities comes from having a vastly informed external point of view. This view can only be cultivated by continuing to educate oneself, understanding the influence of historical factors, comprehending the character of the contemporary context, and learning the specifics and motivations of social movements. These are the processes that facilitate playing a supporting role in helping individuals from marginalized groups exercise their self-determination. The onus is on agents wishing to use their privilege to ally with marginalized groups to recognize that they will make mistakes but to persevere and persist with allyship.
Looking for the perfect allies might be an unachievable ideal, and marginalized groups may not get the allies they want. Nevertheless, an inclination to embrace individuals willing to use the privilege of their identity to forge coalitions might give them the allies they need.
Now more than ever, agents who support allyship must approach it with open minds, look to unite in solidarity, and confront the precarious and unprecedented threats that await us all.
Bibliography
Alonso-Breto, Isabel. “Emma Dabiri, What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition.” Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, no. 38 (January 30, 2023): 179. https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.2023.38.10.
Anderson, Benedict R. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised edition. London: Verso, 2006.
Baker, Laura A., and Denise Daniels. “Nonshared Environmental Influences and Personality Differences in Adult Twins.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58, no. 1 (1990): 103–10. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.1.103.
Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” 1989. https://philpapers.org/rec/CREDTI.
Jennings, Rebecca. “Who Are the Black Squares and Cutesy Illustrations Really For?” Vox, June 3, 2020. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/6/3/21279336/ blackout-tuesday-black-lives-matter-instagram-performative-allyship.
Kaminsky, Zachary, Arturas Petronis, Sun-Chong Wang, Brian Levine, Omar Ghaffar, Darlene Floden, and Anthony Feinstein. “Epigenetics of Personality Traits: An Illustrative Study of Identical Twins Discordant for Risk-Taking Behavior.” Twin Research and Human Genetics 11, no. 1 (February 2008): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.11.1.1.
Plato. “The Republic: Book II - The Individual, The State, And Education.” In Plato: The Complete Works, translated by Benjamin Jowett, 1349–84. Pandora’s Box, 2022.
Torgersen, Anne Mari, and Harald Janson. “Why Do Identical Twins Differ in Personality: Shared Environment Reconsidered.” Twin Research and Human Genetics 5, no. 1 (February 2002): 44–52. https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.5.1.44.
Wellman, Mariah L. “Black Squares for Black Lives? Performative Allyship as Credibility Maintenance for Social Media Influencers on Instagram.” Social Media + Society 8, no. 1 (January 1, 2022): 20563051221080473. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221080473.
Notes
[1] Rebecca Jennings, “Who Are the Black Squares and Cutesy Illustrations Really For?,” Vox, June 3, 2020, https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/6/3/21279336/blackout-tuesday-black-lives-matter-instagram-performative-allyship.
[2] Mariah L. Wellman, “Black Squares for Black Lives? Performative Allyship as Credibility Maintenance for Social Media Influencers on Instagram,” Social Media + Society 8, no. 1 (January 1, 2022): 20563051221080473, https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221080473.
[3] Isabel Alonso-Breto, “Emma Dabiri, What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition,” Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, no. 38 (January 30, 2023): 179, https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.2023.38.10.
[4] Benedict R. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Revised edition. (London: Verso, 2006).
[5] Plato, “The Republic: Book II - The Individual, The State, And Education,” in Plato: The Complete Works, trans. Benjamin Jowett (Pandora’s Box, 2022), 1378.
[6] Kimberle Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” 1989, https://philpapers.org/rec/CREDTI.
[7] Anne Mari Torgersen and Harald Janson, “Why Do Identical Twins Differ in Personality: Shared Environment Reconsidered,” Twin Research and Human Genetics 5, no. 1 (February 2002): 44–52, https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.5.1.44.
[8] Zachary Kaminsky et al., “Epigenetics of Personality Traits: An Illustrative Study of Identical Twins Discordant for Risk-Taking Behavior,” Twin Research and Human Genetics 11, no. 1 (February 2008): 1–11, https://doi.org/10.1375/twin.11.1.1.
[9] Laura A. Baker and Denise Daniels, “Nonshared Environmental Influences and Personality Differences in Adult Twins,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58, no. 1 (1990): 103–10, https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.1.103.