1)
Understand your privilege. “Before I can fight
for the rights of others, I have to understand what rights I have and others
don’t.”
2) Listen. Get caught up on the issues that are important to the communities that you want to support.
3) Speak up, but not over
4) Realize that you will make mistakes. Its not about your intent, its about your impact, so if you get called out, apologize, learn from the experience, and carry on
5) Ally is a verb. Its not enough to say you are one, you have to act. (steps 1-4)
The steps that resonated with me the most were 3 & 5. I’d say I do a pretty good job trying to understand, and listening, but I get insecure about actually acting. One of the worst parts about watching what happened to George Floyd was the question that popped into my head: “if you had been there, would you have spoken up like others in the crowd were brave enough to do?” I need to be brave enough to act when a situation arises. I had a bumper sticker once that said “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes”. I’ve always had trouble with it, but its one of my goals.
2) Listen. Get caught up on the issues that are important to the communities that you want to support.
3) Speak up, but not over
4) Realize that you will make mistakes. Its not about your intent, its about your impact, so if you get called out, apologize, learn from the experience, and carry on
5) Ally is a verb. Its not enough to say you are one, you have to act. (steps 1-4)
The steps that resonated with me the most were 3 & 5. I’d say I do a pretty good job trying to understand, and listening, but I get insecure about actually acting. One of the worst parts about watching what happened to George Floyd was the question that popped into my head: “if you had been there, would you have spoken up like others in the crowd were brave enough to do?” I need to be brave enough to act when a situation arises. I had a bumper sticker once that said “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes”. I’ve always had trouble with it, but its one of my goals.