What are you Doing?: Allyship and Pedagogies of Inclusion

The world is on fire. It is literally on fire and I am still seeing people with their all lives matter crap on my Twitter feed and others who don’t seem to get that what is going on in the world is not an isolated incident and it has been going on for centuries. As the great social justice moment chant states, “the system isn’t broken, it was built this way.” So today I am going to challenge you to think about what you are doing, especially those of you in higher education, to work on the systemic oppression and systematic barriers that are built into the spaces we negotiate and navigate daily. This post may end up being very long; this post may end up saying things you do not want to hear. But, if you are an academic, especially a white academic, you have privilege that you need to address and it is not up to Black or Indigenous academics to remind you of this. I am calling you out. 

Part One

I am a cis white middle-aged anosmatic settler lesbian woman. I was not born with class privilege but I have attained more through my work life. You see what I did there, that is called identifying your social location and if you can’t do it, or don’t feel comfortable doing it then you need to start right there. My social location places me in conversation with many aspects of society. As a cis presenting woman I have privileges that trans folx do not. As a white woman I have privileges that BIPOC people do not. As a settler I have privileges that are part of the colonial legacy of violence. As a woman I have a complicated and oftentimes inequitable relationship with spaces of knowledge production which privilege male voices. As a lesbian I have complicated and oftentimes inequitable relationships with social spaces that privilege heteronormativity. I am able bodied but I lack the sense of smell, so I can physically engage in most spaces, but there are spaces where my lack of the ability to smell can put me in danger (like if something is on fire). I challenge you to do this. Write a paragraph about your social location, reflect on how you are privileged or reflect on the systemic barriers you face.

Part Two

If you are an academic, reflect on the tenets of your pedagogy and your research. Mine are access, ethics, and equity. Pick three. You could have more but three is a nice number to start if you haven’t done this exercise before. Usually these tenets will be found in your teaching philosophy. If you haven’t written a teaching philosophy then that is your part two and a half. Now it is one part to state what these tenets are, it is another part to show with concrete evidence how you are upholding what you believe in. 

Part Three

What evidence supports your theory? What is your teaching philosophy in praxis? I’ll give you examples. When I teach in a physical environment I look to make sure there is accessible space for learners who are wheelchair users. Teaching online or remotely, I ask learners about technology needs and barriers they may be facing. I ask learners for their pronouns at the beginning of the term so I do not misgender anyone. I do check-ins or access checks in different ways to support mental health (this includes content warnings). These are some examples, and you could be doing very different and equally important things, but you need to reflect on it and you need to identify it if you haven’t before.

Part Four

Practice allyship inside and outside the classroom. This post is an example of practicing allyship. I am attempting to identify parts of being an ally because the world needs allies desperately right now and again it is not up to BIPOC scholars to take time from the struggle to do this work. One of the most important parts of being an ally is LISTENING. Listen to what those you are being an ally to are saying. Being an ally means you listen to the struggle and then stand up to the inequity identified. Being an ally means you do not centre yourself you centre the struggle. Use your social and cultural capital to support others in the struggle but also use your physical presence to address the struggle. Amplify the voices of those without your social location and privilege. This isn’t time for your tears and expecting to be comforted, that takes away from the struggle. This isn’t time for “but not all white people” because that takes away from the struggle. You also need to be aware of your mistakes, to acknowledge them and learn from them. This isn’t time to be defensive. Remember how you felt when you received feedback on your first draft of anything? It was scary and it was upsetting, but you certainly wouldn’t go “look I didn’t mean to have so many semi-colons in this paragraph, I like semi-colons, I shouldn’t be punished for my love of semi-colons.” Does this sentence sound ridiculous? Of course it does. It sounds as ridiculous as “but I have a Black friend, but I have a queer friend, so I can’t be racist, so I can’t be homophobic.” Stop this ridiculousness and focus on the struggle and how you can not detract from the struggle by being defensive. You will mess up, the important part is to learn from it. 

Also taking from a post I made earlier this afternoon, you can’t pick and choose your allyship because the systems of oppression are all connected. Today, yesterday and for centuries BIPOC have been killed because they are BIPOC in a system that is set up to oppress. Tomorrow is the start of Pride month, a movement started by black trans folx because of police oppression of LGBTQI2S ppl. This week is accessibility awareness week. A movement started because of inequity of access. The interconnectivity of these struggles is fairly obvious. 

So what are you doing every day to tear down systems of oppression? How are you being an ally? I approach each day with inclusion and access in mind, with every interaction I have with faculty, instructors, staff. I try to identify barriers and make sure they are not perpetuated. Education is a foundational site of oppression and the continuation of inequity. Even if you are not in education specifically, you have a responsibility as a civic minded and social-justice minded person to educate others. It’s on us, especially those with privilege and a ridiculous amount of different kinds of capital. Please work every day to end barriers and oppression. Work toward and adopt a pedagogy of inclusion.