Library: Anti-Oppression Resources: Allyship/Activism

Understanding Privilege

What is privilege?

"Privilege" refers to certain social advantages, benefits, or degrees of prestige and respect that an individual has by virtue of belonging to certain social identity groups. Within American and other Western societies, these privileged social identities—of people who have historically occupied positions of dominance over others—include whites, males, heterosexuals, Christians, and the wealthy, among others.

What Privilege Really Means (And Doesn’t Mean) – To Clear Up Your Doubts Once and For All
Maisha Johnson explores the complexity and misconceptions around privilege.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh
Helps readers locate themselves within a spectrum of privilege by exploring their experiences of socio-economic class, race, gender, sexuality, and colonialism.
Project Implicit - Implicit Association Test (IAT)
Project Implicit is interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases. Take this test to learn more about your implicit biases.

In Hawaiʻi, certain ethnic groups that are considered minorities on the North American continent, including Japanese-Americans and Chinese-Americans, can be considered a privileged social identity group. Learn more about privilege in the Hawai'i context with the following resources.

Ethnicity and Inequality in Hawaiʻi by Jonathan Y. Okamura
Call Number: READ ONLINE
ISBN: 1281879029
Publication Date: 2008
Challenging the dominant view of Hawaiʻi as a melting pot paradise a place of ethnic tolerance and equality Jonathan Okamura examines how ethnic inequality is structured and maintained in island society. He finds that ethnicity, not race or class, signifies difference for Hawaii's people and therefore structures their social relations. In Hawaiʻi, residents attribute greater social significance to the presumed cultural differences between ethnicities than to more obvious physical differences, such as skin color. According to Okamura, ethnicity regulates disparities in access to resources, rewards, and privileges among ethnic groups, as he demonstrates in his analysis of socioeconomic and educational inequalities in the state. He shows that socially and economically dominant ethnic groups Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Whites have stigmatized and subjugated the islands other ethnic groups especially Native Hawaiians, Filipino Americans, and Samoans. He demonstrates how ethnic stereotypes have been deployed against ethnic minorities and how these groups have contested their subordinate political and economic status by articulating new identities for themselves.
Asian Settler Colonialism by Jonathan Y. Okamura (Editor); Candace Fujikane (Editor)
Call Number: READ ONLINE
ISBN: 0824861515
Publication Date: 2008
Asian Settler Colonialism is a groundbreaking collection that examines the roles of Asians as settlers in Hawaiʻi. Contributors from various fields and disciplines investigate aspects of Asian settler colonialism to illustrate its diverse operations and impact on Native Hawaiians. Essays range from analyses of Japanese, Korean, and Filipino settlement to accounts of Asian settler practices in the legislature, the prison industrial complex, and the U.S. military to critiques of Asian settlers' claims to Hawaiʻi in literature and the visual arts.

Possessions of Whiteness: Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness in the Pacific
Maile Arvin. 2014. From Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education, & Society.

Allyship

What is allyship?

Allyship is the lifelong process in which people with privilege and power work to develop empathy towards a marginalized group's challenges or issues. The goal of allyship is to create a culture in which the marginalized group feels valued, supported, and heard. Since everyone holds systemic power in some areas and lacks it in others, everyone has areas in which they can practice allyship.

Justice in June
How to help during the George Floyd protests. Written by Bryanna Wallace & Autumn Gupta.
So you call yourself an ally?
From the Everyday Feminism website

"[As a white person,] I’ve described my journey as an antiracist as I’m a poisonous snake — not inherently bad, but I carry a poison that can kill, and I need to do everything in my power every day not to bite people of color, and I need to, just like a snake, shed my skin, not that I can get rid of my white skin but shed the embedded white supremacy that lives with me and in my community. And that’s not easy work. It means changing everything about what we’ve always known."

--Molly Sweeney, organizing director at 482 Forward, an education organizing network in Detroit

A Few Do's and Don'ts

In a nutshell: nānā ka maka, hoʻolohe ka pepeiao, paʻa ka waha

THE DO’S

Do be open to listening
Do be aware of your implicit biases
Do your research to learn more about the history of the struggle in which you are participating
Do the inner work to figure out a way to acknowledge how you participate in oppressive systems
Do the outer work and figure out how to change the oppressive systems
Do amplify (online and when physically present) the voices of those without your privilege
Do learn how to listen and accept criticism with grace, even if it’s uncomfortable

THE DON’TS

Do not expect to be taught or shown. Take it upon yourself to use the tools around you to learn and answer your questions
Do not participate for the gold medal in the “Oppression Olympics” (you don’t need to compare how your struggle is just as bad)
Do not behave as though you know best
Do not take credit for the labor of those who are marginalized and did the work before you stepped into the picture
Do not assume that every member of an underinvested group feels oppressed

From the Guide to Allyship

A Kāhea

Ally in Training

Read transcript

Learning About Activism

Rules for Revolutionaries by Becky Bond; Zack Exley
Call Number: READ ONLINE
ISBN: 9781603587273
Publication Date: 2016
Lessons from the groundbreaking grassroots campaign that helped launch a new political revolution Rules for Revolutionaries is a bold challenge to the political establishment and the "rules" that govern campaign strategy. It tells the story of a breakthrough experiment conducted on the fringes of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign: A technology-driven team empowered volunteers to build and manage the infrastructure to make seventy-five million calls, launch eight million text messages, and hold more than one-hundred thousand public meetings--in an effort to put Bernie Sanders's insurgent campaign over the top. Bond and Exley, digital iconoclasts who have been reshaping the way politics is practiced in America for two decades, have identified twenty-two rules of "Big Organizing" that can be used to drive social change movements of any kind. And they tell the inside story of one of the most amazing grassroots political campaigns ever run.
Next American Revolution by Grace Lee Boggs; Scott Kurashige
Call Number: READ ONLINE
ISBN: 1280491892
Publication Date: 2012
A world dominated by America and driven by cheap oil, easy credit, and conspicuous consumption is unraveling before our eyes. In this powerful, deeply humanistic book, Grace Lee Boggs, a legendary figure in the struggle for justice in America, shrewdly assesses the current crisis political, economical, and environmental and shows how to create the radical social change we need to confront new realities. A vibrant, inspirational force, Boggs has participated in all of the twentieth century s major social movements for civil rights, women s rights, workers rights, and more. She draws from seven decades of activist experience, and a rigorous commitment to critical thinking, to redefine "revolution" for our times. From her home in Detroit, she reveals how hope and creativity are overcoming despair and decay within the most devastated urban communities. Her book is a manifesto for creating alternative modes of work, politics, and human interaction that will collectively constitute the next American Revolution."

Guide to Being an Anti-Racism Activist
"Do you feel overwhelmed by the destructive power of racism, but unsure of what to do about it? The good news is, while the scope of racism in the U.S. might be vast, progress is possible. Step-by-step and piece-by-piece, we can work to end racism, but to begin this work, we must truly understand what racism is." -from Website

Protests

Bystander Intervention Training
"In response to the rise in Anti-Asian/American and xenophobic harassment, we at Hollaback! partnered with Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC to adapt our free bystander intervention training as well as offering a de-escalation training to meet this moment." -from website
How to Stay as Safe as Possible While You Protest
"Protesting can come with varying risks, depending on the situation. It’s important to know how to stay safe at any protest, but the stakes are especially high at a moment when protestors are at risk both from police violence and from COVID-19. And while there are certain things you can do to try to mitigate those risks, unfortunately even protesting peacefully in these situations is not a guarantee of safety—particularly for Black protesters. As we’ve seen in recent days, numerous protests across the country have been met with militarized and violent police responses, including the use of tear gas and rubber bullets, and charging toward the crowd on horseback or in a patrol vehicle. This is not meant to deter you from protesting but to make you mindful of steps you can take to try to protect yourself while exercising your rights." - from Website
Know Your Rights: Protesters’ Rights
The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest. However, police and other government officials are allowed to place certain narrow restrictions on the exercise of speech rights. Make sure you’re prepared by brushing up on your rights before heading out into the streets.

Other Ways You Can Help

Documenting the Now
"Documenting the Now responds to the public's use of social media for chronicling historically significant events as well as demand from scholars, students, and archivists, among others, seeking a user-friendly means of collecting and preserving this type of digital content. Documenting the Now has a strong commitment to prioritizing ethical practices when working with social media content, especially in terms of collection and long-term preservation. This commitment extends to Twitter's notion of honoring user intent and the rights of content creators." - From website.
How to Actively Oppose Racist Violence Instead of Posting a Black Square (Nylah Burton, via Vice)

Donate to bail funds or mutual aid groups.
Join a mutual aid group if you can't donate to one.
Remotely provide protestors with protection against COVID-19 and tear gas.
Read about systemic racism, privilege, prison and police abolition, and the history of oppression against Black people in this country.
Talk to your racist family members about what's going on and hold them accountable for their views.
Call or text your elected officials.