Building Common Ground: Striving for Impeccable Allyship

The world of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion can feel like a vast old-growth forest in which one can easily find themselves lost. As they say, you can’t see the forest through the trees. The great thing about the Portland Means Progress initiative is that it’s definitively race-forward with its equity lens. Therefore, so will this article be race-forward in its approach to navigating a challenging topic that pertains to race/culture-based discrepancies within our respective organizations.

The foundation of a sustainable approach to producing equity within an organization is to build common ground. There are many avenues and talking points we could cover on how to establish common ground. Personally, I’m big into definitions and shared language, which leads to shared understanding. For instance, imagine when everyone uses the term ally, they collectively knew what it meant. Because let’s be honest, we all have our own interpretation of what an ally is and what allyship looks like. Today your organization can build common ground by having a shared understanding of what effective racial allyship consists of.

A general definition of an ally is someone who bio/psycho/socially supports the uplift of others that are identified as being a part of a less privileged group in society. Once again, moving forward, this article will focus on racial allyship.

In a cross-racial context, an ally is one who supports people who are part of racialized groups that have been historically subjected to systematic prejudice, antagonism, and discrimination.

However, the level of allyship we should be striving for is that of an Impeccable Ally. An Impeccable Ally is not a self-proclaimed title. This is not a certification that one can add to their LinkedIn bio. This is not a title one is given as a result of serving on a mission trip in Africa, or by having bi-racial grandchildren. An Impeccable Ally demonstrates the ability to build constructive cross-racial relationships while advocating for people of racialized groups in all areas of activity:

Economics
Education
Entertainment
Labor
Law
Politics
Religion
Sex
War

Since the Summer of George Floyd’ s murder (2020), we witnessed a sharp increase in corporate statements of support for communities of color, the Black Lives Matter slogan being adopted, organizations being intentional about being race-forward in various initiatives and celebrating diversity more than ever. However, professionals of color in Portland still overwhelmingly feel like outsiders within their organization. Professionals of color still experience a wide range of microaggressions and discrimination at all organizational levels and report a lack of accountability among organizational leaders when diversity and equity issues are raised.

If our allyship isn’t impeccable, it will most likely prove itself to be ineffective and performative. Becoming an Impeccable Ally is a process of understanding the laws of human nature, particularly the biases which we all operate with:

Confirmation – The tendency to seek out and prefer information that supports our preexisting beliefs.
Conviction – The tendency to believe a message due to the conviction of the messenger’s speech, and/or one’s preexisting conviction about the message.
Appearance – The tendency to not see people as they are, but rather as they appear to us.
Group – The motivation to take up ideas and opinions of others as it satisfies our desire to be in relationship and/or accepted by a group.
Blame – The tendency to blame others or circumstances for one’s mistakes, instead of looking closely at one’s role in the situation.
Superiority – The tendency to think one is naturally more ethical than others.

From there, one must understand the social construct of race and unearth the biases that have been programmed into us since birth. Then, we deal with the social phenomena of impression management and how that plays a role in cross-racial interaction and also common forms of discourse that disconnect us from those in which our allyship is directed. Even with the best intentions, individuals who consider themselves allies may inadvertently undermine their position by using phrases like “I don’t see color,” “I speak several languages,” or “my best friend is (insert BIPOC identity).” Such statements are typically not interpreted as genuine. Downplaying one’s privilege in society or being overly cautious to avoid offending a person of color can lead to insincere interactions. Lastly, we learn to build trust with each person that we interact with by always being authentic, avoiding assumptions, doing our best, listening actively, and being courageous.

Professionals of color often speak about the idea of “bringing your whole self to work.” While this is a novel concept, it often proves to be risky. The nine areas of activity in our lives are constantly compromised, whether it’s pay discrimination (economics and labor), tokenization (politics), or the perpetuation of racially insensitive phrases and jokes (entertainment). As a result, trust is compromised.

In conclusion, the current standard of being an ally often involves merely saying the right things. However, being an Impeccable Ally requires a combination of saying and doing the right things, with a heavy emphasis on action. Let us embrace a common ground of effective allyship to truly cultivate belonging for professionals of color and produce trust and equity within our organizations.