Why "allyship"?: a message from the Anti-Racist Allyship Group

Anti-racist work is a constant process, it is not fashionable and it is not optional.

We are the - newly renamed - Race & Ethnicity: Anti Racist Allyship Group. We were formerly known as the Anti Racist Working Group - but recently we have been beginning to recognise the potential negative consequences with identifying as a ‘working group’ rather than an allyship group.

Calling ourselves a working group produces a false and binary assumption - that R&E is not doing anti-racist work and that the ARWG is doing everything. This is absolutely not the case, in fact, we are entirely newly established, whereas, throughout LUC’s short history, dealing with racism within LUC has been the burden of the Race & Ethnicity Committee, its chairs, board members and BIPOC students. They have brought to light the ugly fruits of deep-rooted racism within our students, staff and institution.

So, why did we choose ‘allyship group’? We need to appeal to our target audience - white people. The vast majority of LUC is white, and racist remarks and microaggressions thrive in our white classroom environments based on our accommodating attitude towards the uncertainty that white students of LUC often have surrounding blatant racism and microaggressions and the often perceived good intentions behind discriminatory behaviour. We all deserve a space in which we can learn effectively and this should never be less so for our BIPOC peers. With this in mind, we are aiming to encourage the white people within our community to engage with the resources or events of the ARAG to examine themselves and their relation to their whiteness. The ARAG events and resources we are beginning to distribute are small tools primarily targeted towards the white student body, but by no means exclusively, to promote continuous self-reflection.

We also recognise the difficulties of using a word like ‘allyship’. The word ‘ally’ has connotations of exceptionalism as if doing basic anti-racist work in our communities everyday lives is deserving of a gold medal for effort. This is not the case and thus we want to emphasise that we do not use ‘ally’ as a gold star - we will not use it as an identifier at all. We only use ‘allyship’ in the continuous sense - not that we are allies, but that we are doing allyship. Anti-racist work is a constant process, it is not fashionable and it is not optional. According to Ibram X. Kendi, in our society, you are either anti-racist or racist. You cannot simply be not-racist. While we acknowledge Kendi is not the final word on this, we find this an effective stance through which to think about our relationship to racism and anti-racism. We endeavour to promote anti-racism and reflecting upon this as a continuous effort.

ARAG isn’t going to preach to you about how to be better. We are all still learning. ARAG simply is committed to lifelong unlearning and holding one another accountable so that the burden of change does not fall time after time solely on the BIPOC members of our community. We are not self-appointed allies but we are engaged in allyship work. The ARAG exists to support the incredible work which R&E has been carrying out for years, and as an additional group of responsibility towards antiracism for white students, teachers, and support staff in order to make sure that the conversations had last year do not simply become a ‘phase’ but instead become the beginning moment in which LUC - institution and community - makes tangible changes and listens to its students of colour.