Nov. Blog Post

An ally is crucial when you are the marginalized group. As a woman and a Latina, I feel it’s extremely important to have allies. The majority already oppresses marginalized groups, and when they are oppressed for too long it can lead them to believe they should be oppressed. Allies are beneficial because they help be a catalyst to change. They are an outsider from the marginalized group and can help bring a fresh pair of eyes and help the oppress fight for change. As an ally, it is important to remember to respect the marginalized group. They need to make sure to be there but not overpower. Allies need to also remember to try not to take control or impede their ideas onto the marginalized group. In my opinion, an ally only needs to be there for support and to give constant reassurance that they understand why they are the marginalized group. I think allies do face obstacles. They will never be apart of the marginalized group and that can prevent them from being completely accepted as an ally. As well, they are not in the place to speak for the marginalized group. They are only there to be someone to lean on. It can be hard for allies to not speak up for the group because they believe injustices and oppressing is going on. But it isn’t there place to do so. It is a delicate balance between being an ally and oppressing the marginalized group even more.

In the article, “How to be an ally?” by Anne Bishop, she talks about what you need to do to be the best possible ally. Some of her advice is to let your own group know that oppression is happening among the marginalized group. She also put quite a lot of importance on how you need to be constantly listening to that oppressed group. In the article, where she talks about how western society are recovering oppressors is one of the most eye-opening parts. She states “All members of this society grow up surrounded by oppressive attitudes; we are marinated in it. It runs in our veins; it is as invisible to us as the air we breathe” (p.1). She talks about how an ally doesn’t automatically stop being racist but becomes a recovering racist. You can’t wipe away what society has trained us to think and act but you can try your best to step away from that oppression and open your eyes to it. The author makes it very clear that you can be an ally for a marginalized group and do everything in your power to not be apart of the oppression. But you will still always be an oppressor because until the world society changes you are still apart of the group that isn’t being oppressed.       

Connecting back to the article and what I was saying prior is that it’s hard being an ally. I do have sympathy for white males and even white females because it is hard to say you’re an ally when you still live a life where you are not oppressed. An ally will always be an outsider to the marginalized group because they will never live and breath the oppression that they face everyday. It is important for allies to listen but never share their menial problems to the oppressed group. We need a world with more allies though because it may lead a domino effect. The more allies marginalized groups have the better chance the majority group wants to change society so that oppression stops.

References:

Bishop, A. (n.d.). How To Be An Ally - Breaking Cycles of Oppression - DAA. Retrieved December 1, 2016, from http://www.daa.org.uk/uploads/pdf/How to be an Ally.pdf