Allyship and Solidarity

Facilitated by Mike Bishop

FACILITATOR BIOGRAPHY

Mike Bishop, Ph.D. is an educator and coach who has facilitated interactive workshops with a focus on human development, human rights, and human dignity for 25 years. He is a Freeville, NY resident who organizes with his White neighbors against White supremacy through his activism, research, teaching, and writing.

SET THE TONE

Mike began with a welcome and a round of introductions. He offered a land acknowledgment, adapted by fellow organizer Patricia Rodriguez.

“I am doing this land acknowledgment as a non-indigenous person, in the understanding that so much more than this needs to take place. The United States Government and the State of New York carried out genocide, ethnic cleansing, and forced removal against the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois nations as a way to acquire land, resources, and power. They broke promises made to the Mohawk, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and Tuscarora people. Despite the pillaging of the Sullivan Clinton campaign and broken treaties, this is Indigenous land. It will always be Indigenous land. Indigenous people are still here, and they still suffer from ongoing colonialism and oppression, and are re-traumatized on a regular basis. Acknowledging this is a starting point, and knowing that our Indigenous neighbors still thrive, that they protect the land and water and mountains, as well as their language and culture. They move us to stand with them as they take these actions. They move us to see how we can begin to know more about the history of the Indigenous peoples to whom this land belongs, and their efforts to have land returned to them, and to know their visions and struggles.”

Mike reminded the group that all were gathered to discuss equity and justice with an emphasis on allyship and solidarity. He invited the group to consider how dialogue is created by people, like river banks shape the flow of water. Mike encouraged everyone to see the dialogue as a place for connection, where everyone contributes their best thinking and gets a chance to speak, participants do not argue, and all members of the group see this as a collective activity, not a series of monologues.

Mike introduced himself, shared briefly of his transformative professional experiences, stressed his privileged identities, and identified himself as an aspiring ally. He also emphasized his roles as facilitator: to keep time, to make the dialogue easier (allowing no dehumanizing language), to encourage perspective taking, to offer connections between contributions, and to give examples from his experience in service of hope and the future.

He encouraged the group to let the dialogue be guided by three questions:

1. Since arriving here, what is something you have noticed, seen, heard, smelled, and tasted? Avoid rushing to conclusions about what these “mean” to you. (The “WHAT?”)

2. How do these grounds [John Brown Historic Site] and exhibits [A Memorial Field and Dreaming of Timbuctoo] affect you? (The “SO WHAT?”)

3. If the exhibits raised your consciousness about systemic problems within America, what are we willing to do about it? (The “NOW WHAT?”)

ACTIVITY

Perspective: Mike invited participants to draw a circle in the air with their extended pointer finger and arm. He then asked them to slowly draw their circle down in front of them until they were looking down on it, and report in which direction they were making a circle: clockwise or counterclockwise.

Mike then broke the group into pairs and asked each person to share their name and the story of their name. He asked the larger group, “What did you find out about each other’s names?” He then opened the conversation: “Describe a sensory experience related to an act of allyship that you’d like to bring into the conversation.”

He then steered the group towards defining allyship. Was John Brown an ally? A White savior? Is it anachronistic to call John Brown an ally, or to use these terms at all? Who decides the right course of action? Where does an ally stand in relation to Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color? Does an ally follow more than they lead?

LESSONS AND DISCUSSION POINTS

• White people should avoid ostracizing other White people, particularly as we begin our activist journeys. We can encourage ourselves and each other, no matter what stage we are at.
• Allies not directly impacted by oppression and exploitation, yet are willing to stand with frontline communities who are.
• Allyship encompasses: solidarity + accompaniment, shared values, accountability, visibility, sacrifice, acknowledging ignorance, seeking out learning, and moral courage.
• Action + risk = Ally/Accomplice: someone who is willing to go beyond the role of an ally by taking on risks through their actions.
• The importance of language: Context matters. Who is using the term in question? How are they using it?
• For accountability, White activists must be in dialogue with people in frontline communities.
• Allies have the job of continually inviting White people into anti-racist circles.

READING LIST

• Brittany Packnett claiming the word, “accomplice.”
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. The rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. A 1969 autobiography describing the early years of the American writer and poet. A coming-of-age story, the first in a seven-volume series.
• The Wall Between by Anne Braden. What resulted from an act of friendship in 1954, when Anne and Carl Braden bought a house in an all-White neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, on behalf of a Black couple, Andrew and Charlotte Wade.
• Fledgling by Octavia Butler. A science fiction vampire novel in which Shori, a 53-year-old member of the Ina species, appears to be a 10-year-old African-American girl.
• John Brown by W. E. B. Du Bois and David R. Roediger. In this brilliant but long-forgotten cultural biography by one of the greatest African American intellectuals of the twentieth century, W.E.B. Du Bois re-creates the story of Brown’s life and death, illuminating the enduring significance of a man who, in Frederick Douglass’s words, “began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic.