White Allyship 101:
Resources to Get to Work
Overview
White supremacy and racism are serious problems in our society that affect us all. In addition to providing a space for conversation, The Dismantle Collective desires to be a starting point for white allies to do the work and engage in analysis, education, and action on anti-racism. The following documents may be used as tools to educate yourself, your peers, employees, committees, etc.
Please do not share without attribution to the Dismantle Collective. And, if you find them useful, please donate to support our continued work.
Allyship Definition
Allyship is a process, and everyone has more to learn. Allyship involves a lot of listening. Sometimes, people say “doing ally work” or “acting in solidarity with” to reference the fact that “ally” is not an identity, it is an ongoing and lifelong process that involves a lot of work.
A white ally acknowledges the limits of her/his/their knowledge about other people’s experiences but doesn’t use that as a reason not to think and/or act. A white ally does not remain silent but confronts racism as it comes up daily, but also seeks to deconstruct it institutionally and live in a way that challenges systemic oppression, at the risk of experiencing some of that oppression. Being a white ally entails building relationships with both people of color, and also with white people in order to challenge them in their thinking about race. White allies don’t have it all figured out, but are deeply committed to non-complacency.
Articles
Frances E. Kendall, How to Be an Ally if You Are a Person with Privilege
Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations
Ali Michael Org, 10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children’s Books For Racism and Sexism,
Allan Johnson, Excerpt from Privilege: Power and Difference
Margaret Biser, I used to lead tours on a plantation. You wouldn’t believe the questions I got about slavery.
Holy shit, being an ally isn’t about me!, Voices of WOC & Allies
Levana Saxon, Allyship and Accountability Glossary
Ryan Struyk, Blacks and whites see racism in the US very very differently
Matthew Hughey & W. Carson Byrd Born that Way: Scientific Racism is Creeping Back Into Our Thinking
NPR: Michael Martin, Fear of the Black Man, How Racial Bias Impacts Crime/Labor
Ernest Owens, 10 Messages of Wisdom We Need to Give Black Youth Right Now
Alexis Madrigal, The Racist Housing Policy that Made your Neighborhood
Goyette and Scheller, 15 Charts that Prove We’re Far From Post Racial
Julie Turkowicz, A ‘Historic Moment’ for Native Americans
Nicholas Kristof, When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Parts 1-7
Joy Sewing, Marrianne Williamson Asked White People To Apologize. She Got It Right
Tara Bahrampour, They Considered Themselves White, But DNA Tests Told a More Complicated Story
Books
Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, 2nd Edition (2015) Glenn Singleton
Race Amity: A Primer on America’s Other Tradition, Natl Center for Race Amity
White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism, Paula Rothenberg
Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice, Eric Mason
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo
Privilege: Power and Difference, Allan Johnson
Privilege: A Reader, Michael Kimmel & Abby Ferber
Raising Race Questions, Ali Michael
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander
Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson
America’s Original Sin : America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, Jim Wallis
Slavery By Another Name, Douglas Blackmon
When Affirmative Action Was White, Ira Katznelson
So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo
The Color of Law: The Forgotten Story of How Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Ibram X. Kendi
How to be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi
White Awake: An Honest Look at What it Means to be White, Daniel Hill
Empire of Cotton: A Global History, Sven Beckert
Slavery’s Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development, Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman
The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, Calvin Schermerhorn
The History of White People, Nell Irvin Painter
Films
13th, Ava DuVernay
When They See Us, Ava DuVernay
The Color of Fear, Lee Mun Wah
I’m Not Racist Am I?, Andre Lee
BOSS: The Black Experience in Business, PBS documentary
Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II, PBS based on book by Douglas Blackmon
Reconstruction, PBS based on book by Eric Foner
Videos
White Lies We Tell Our Children, Colin Stokes
The Enduring Myth of Black Criminality, Ta-Nehisi Coates via The Atlantic
How to Have a Voice and Lean Into Conversations on Race, Amanda Kemp
The Future of Race in America (on The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander
A Conversation with Black Women on Race, New York Times Op-Docs Series
A Conversation with White People about Race, New York Times Op-Docs Series
How Race Settled the Suburbs, Upworthy (Adam Ruins Everything)
Equity vs Equality, Carneades
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