Allyship is using your power, privilege and influence to make the cause of a marginalized group(s) your own. It is an active process.
This requires that you educate yourself about the group(s), its history, challenges, strengths and accomplishments. It requires that you be willing to put yourself in the uncomfortable position of speaking up when needed and at other times creating space for people from the groups with which you are allied to have a voice.
Resources
In Letter from a Birmingham Jail, directed at moderate white clergymen who told blacks they should be patient for civil rights, Martin Luther King, Jr expresses his frustration but still looks ahead to a day when they can meet as brothers.
This PBS news segment, How Anti-racism is a Treatment for the Cancer of Racism, explores the fallacy of claiming to be not racist as opposed to anti-racist.
Belonging Community Conversation on Allyship Part of the Social Status Series from Imagine Fox Cities Initiative is a resource for having conversations about what allyship looks like and how to engage as an ally.
Check out this article that explores what it means to be an ally versus an accomplice in dismantling racism.
Reflection and Response
How can you be a better ally? Write out some concrete ways that you can put into practice in your daily life.