LIVE Q&A and FOLLOW UP

Update!

Thank you to everyone who listened in on our webinar! We've now uploaded the video recording for anyone who wasn't able to attend but would like to watch on their own time. We've also posted a list of resources that Dr. Courtney Thompson, Professor of American Studies and Women and Gender Studies (WGS), and Dr. Mansker, chair of the WGS department and co-host of our webinar, have suggested. Lastly, we've included co-host and Professor of Rhetoric Dr. O'Rourke's written response to the first question (listed below) along with two citations he sent.

Slavery by Another Name (2008) Douglas Blackmon (Book/Documentary Film)

The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America (2010) Khalil Gibran Muhammad (Book)

"The Problem of Citizenship, the Question of Crime, and the Origins of the Civil Rights Movement" (2013) Michael Ralph (Scholarly Article)

"The Racialization of Criminality and the Criminalization of Race: From Plantation to the Prison Farm" (2013) Lisa Guenther in Solitary Confinement: Social Death and Its Afterlives (Scholarly Article)**

"The 'Stickiness' of Race in an Era of Mass Incarceration" (2013) Devah Pager in Beyond Discrimination: Racial Inequality in a Post-Racist Era (Scholarly Article)**

"The Enduring Myth of Black Criminality" (2015) Ta-Nehisi Coates (Animated Video)

"The Demonization and Criminalization of Unarmed Black Male Victims in America" (2016) Calvin John Smiley and David Fakunle (Scholarly Article)

13th (2016) Ava Duvernay (Documentary Film

**Requires username and password for access; if you are a student or professor of Sewanee, you can get the articles on JSTOR. If you are not but would like to read the articles, please email huangje0@sewanee.edu or leveqbj0@sewanee.edu.

African American Policy Forum and Kimberle Crenshaw's podcast, INTERSECTIONALITY MATTERS (available also on Apple podcasts or Spotify).
Frances E. Kendall, "How to be an Ally if you are a person with privilege"
Corinne Shutack, "97 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice."
Dismantle Collective, "White Allyship 101" - it has an additional list of resources with a full comprehensive list of definitions.
Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
Angela Y. Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement - These last two are not specifically about allyship, but the connections between state and interpersonal violence and Black feminism for an intersectional perspective

1. Can you talk about the concept of allyship being a lifelong process? What are some traits of a good ally? What are the most important actions that we all can take in order to become stronger and more active allies?

First, think of "ally" not as a noun but as a verb. It is people of identity privilege who are "currently operating in solidarity with" others-the key is that it is an action and not a thing, and certainly not a status, nor an identity.

Second, investigate, listen, and read:

Research the issues, questions, and especially the language used. Investigate the arguments and the evidence.
Listen to others-listen all the time, listen thoughtfully, and listen with an open mind.
Read like crazy. Here are two on this very question:

Mia McKenzie, "No More Allies"
Jamie Utt, "So You Call Yourself an Ally: 10 Things All 'Allies' Need to Know"

Third, operating as an ally has many traits and they vary from person to person, issue to issue. Some of the key traits seem to be:

Functioning as an ally requires courage: Courage to confront oneself, one's friends, and others.
Functioning as an ally requires long-term commitment and perseverance: You can't take a break.
Functioning as an ally requires brutal, honest self-reflection. We are all biased but we must understand the nature and roots of those biases.
Functioning as an ally requires a commitment to education and tough learning, learning that can hurt.
Functioning as an ally requires friendship and generosity of spirit. Can't be in isolation.
Functioning as an ally means you should not yearn for the spotlight: Get off stage.
Functioning as an ally means focusing on those who share your identity. White allies should have difficult conversations about racism with other whites.
Functioning as an ally requires toughness-the willingness to admit mistakes, to apologize, to act accountably, to take some hard hits and abuse.