As an outgrowth of authentic passion, another crucial element in the racial healing process is allyship, which combines sure friendship and a mutual and joint commitment between persons of different skin color (refined in this set of commentaries to be Black and white) to oppose together individual, institutional, and systemic racism. In addition, commitment to allyship includes the elimination of stereotypical, white racist behavior and practices toward Blacks. Based on constant friendship and comprehensive tenets of truth and honesty, allyship shall become for each person in the relationship an internal source of strength and an external demonstration of trust.
Parties to a Black-white allyship should expect the following to happen. One cares deeply for the other’s condition. One routinely employs an empathetic response for benefit of the other. Racial healing is a regular topic for examination, refinement, and confirmation between the two. Each acknowledges the love between each other and does the same publicly.
For many of the presentations and interviews I give on these subjects, I normally finish with an exhortation for Black-white racial healing and allyships, describing the advantages and prospects for individual “escapes”, particularly from collective white enclaves that occur in so many business and social settings with little exposure to Black brothers and sisters. I have argued for whites to break free from being captive to institutionalized cocoons where whites remain without communication or experience with Blacks. For most places in the country, this captivity describes a current condition; for instance, in predominantly white churches, regardless of denomination, I find that there are few well-articulated and disciplined programs to broaden the inclusion of Blacks and to achieve consequential relations with Black persons.
At these moments, I’m repeatedly asked by members of an audience the question: what do you do about those whites who continue to live in silos and have little, if any, contact with Blacks? How can they or we, who live that way, be part of racial healing and engage in reciprocity of authentic passion? I routinely acknowledge the problem, but I also remind an audience that there are plenty of opportunities today to connect Black and white individuals, such as the internet, anti-racism task forces, common interest groups, religious outreach initiatives, music enthusiasts and choruses, arts and literature gatherings, etc.
In the normal course of observing racial behavior, there is no question that one can detect inertia, supported by indifference, two impassive factors, allowing filiopietism and damaged heritage to work their wills time and again, keeping those whites undisturbed about the adverse effects of their attitudes toward racism. Inertia just is without an excuse or an apology. Times come and go, and we grow older, and people die, and others are born, and inertia wins out in the end, for the past has then been forced forward once more. Whites learn inertia and how to put racial healing actions to the side and behind, and it is then said among white families and friends, “Oh, we’re not racists. It’s just that charity begins at home. We look after our own, and if we do that, then that’s been our priority and our blessing, and we don’t have any reason to apologize. That was the best we could do, and now we’ll turn it all over to the young to accomplish the same.” Thus rings the death knell for authentic passion, allyship, and ultimately, a cure and abatement for racism.
It is precisely this continuity of age to age that prevents Black-white allyship from burgeoning forth with a new discipline, new prospects, new attachments, new coda, new racial behavior. We whites can do better. It is a very narrow way for life and liberty. It is this normalcy that must be opposed for the centuries of America’s stand in white self-regard and self-styled glorification and all that has been allowed to transpire, endure, and illustrate. It is all of this that allyship and authentic passion must oppose.
What criteria does one embrace for establishing an allyship? Having lived mostly, though not completely, among whites, I suggest to Blacks a white partner with traits that consist of the following. In addition to a commitment by whites to follow a course to authentic passion, Blacks should have a one-to-one partner that has also shown a strong penchant to break old racial models. I would also be skeptical, if Black, of establishing an allyship with a white person who appears quite comfortable with silo dwelling or a propensity for finding meaningful value in various expressions of filiopietism (both revealed and disguised). I think it wise for Blacks to engage with white individuals who show a considerable preference for pluralism and an inclination to the present tense in attitude, aptitude, and interests.
Since allyships shall confront and oppose racial isolation, separation, and subjugation, I also believe that each partner, Black and white, should not be reserved about expressing oneself in public on the subject of race matters. Along the way, I think we’re all called upon in this endeavor to express our views on these subjects publicly.
The partner can be the same sex or opposite sex; a preference should not be an allyship prerequisite.
For a white person looking for a suitable Black partner in an allyship, I may not be a totally objective source since Sheila Walker proved to be so distinctive and productive, which would lead me to recommend someone like her. Nonetheless, the individual should be well-versed in the subject matter, described here, and represent attributes that a prospective ally would comfortably bear to be an effective racial healing and racially liberating partner.
As a result of these commitments for and to each other, an effort to undo an untrue fabric of racist officialdom through allyship becomes inevitable, for there will be, of course, a large number of external, racist forces that will work to break down allyship, sometimes even by those institutions that, on the surface, appear and initially act supportive. For example, because of the research Sheila and I conducted separately before we ever met, we recognized that a local Arkansas, white narrative surrounding the Elaine Race Massacre was not only false, serving as another marker for racism, but that the narrative’s existence and continued employment by some local whites were also, in a not-so-subtle way, an attack on our own racial healing and friendship, which began with an agreement between us, consisting of, in part, the establishment of a body of historical material and evidence that did not include features of the discredited, white narrative. So, we were both impelled to address the fabricated white story when given opportunities, and that is what we did and continued to do, even up to the time of her death – a mantle of allyship I have continued to carry forward.
Racial healing and deep friendship, derived from the application of authentic passion and allyship for a period of seven years with Sheila and me that also embodied our respective families, can be adapted, adopted, and employed elsewhere.
Next Time: One-To-One