A friend reached out to me today. Just to check in, because she knows I am a wife, mother, grandmother, and passionate diversity, equity, inclusion, allyship and anti-racist advocate and practitioner.
She knew I would be grieving the loss of Roberta A. Drury, 32, Margus D. Morrison, 52, Andre Mackneil, 53, Aaron Salter, 55, Geraldine Talley, 62, Celestine Chaney, 65,
Heyward Patterson, 67, Katherine Massey, 72,Pearl Young, 77, who dedicated her Saturdays to working in a soup kitchen.
After listening intently to how yesterday felt to me, she offered to do some research for me. I am on a tight deadline to update some of my DEIA&A curriculum and I was sharing how hard it was to focus yesterday. I kept thinking about the terror they must have felt moments before a hate filled white supremacist shot them.
Like me, she has her own business to run, her own family, friends and everything else that fills up our plates, however, she showed up as a true ally anyway.
If what you just witnessed, the hunting and killing of innocent people because of the color of their skin, because of racism, appalls you, learn how to ally. If witnessing the scapegoating and killing of Asian Americans because of the color of their skin makes you wonder where we are headed with dread, learn to ally. If attacks on synagogue, church's, mosques and other places of peace wound your value system, its time to learn to ally.
Allies take intentional action to include, uplift, and/or advocate for marginalized individuals and groups. They extend their privilege and agency to help in meaningful ways. That's what my friend and ally did for me today.
It will take all of us to dismantle systemic racism. To stop the hate of white supremacists committed to finding someone to blame, to harm, to kill.
If you are a leader, a parent, a friend, a peer bothered by the inequities, racism, and white supremacist ideas, policies, and laws in our country, communities, families, organizations, healthcare, law enforcement; every institution we have built, it is time to ally. It is time to find the courage to change this.
We need you and you need us. The only way we build a society that is equitable, sustainable, humane and worth leaving for our children is together. The only way we build organizations that are innovative and agile is together. They ONLY way we progress is together. #allyship #courageousleadership #eracism #antiracist
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