Central Rivers AEA strives to cultivate a workplace in which everyone feels welcomed and empowered to bring their whole selves to work. Continuing work done by the Equity Committee, in partnership with the Leadership Academy, we will invest in employee development initiatives to foster a positive and inclusive workplace culture.
“Courageous Conversations” will be featured monthly in The Channel, offering staff opportunities for self-guided learning. Starting in February, a Zoom meeting will be held on the first Friday of each month to discuss the month’s topic. (The Zoom link can be found on the CRAEA Master Google Calendar).
If you would like to join us for a Courageous Conversation about Allyship, please join the Zoom meeting on Friday, February 7 from 8:00 – 8:45 am.
Courageous Conversations: Allyship
What does it mean to be an ally?
Ally = ACTION (it is both a noun & verb):
- Being an ally is to provide support and help educate others about behaviors, language and different perspectives.
- Don’t assume – it’s best to ask – just be willing and open.
- Microaggressions & the techniques to battle them.
- We must be open to initiating those “tough” conversations. Just because “we were raised that way,” or “it’s always been this way,” doesn’t mean it’s always right.
- The first step is awareness.
- *Microaggressions = the tiny, casual, almost imperceptible insults and degradation often felt by any marginalized group.
- They are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral and environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative slights and insults to the target person or group.
- Examples: Doing imitations of accents, mistaking someone for someone else of the same ethnicity/race, speaking over or interrupting someone in meetings, especially women or other underrepresented groups.
- *For the recipients, they are exhausted and chip away at self-confidence and belonging.
- Behaviors of allyship include activism, using more inclusive language and combating forms of prejudice (such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ableism and other forms of discrimination).
- Allyship is the practice of emphasizing social justice, inclusion and human rights by members of an ingroup, to advance the interests of an oppressed or marginalized group.
- Allyship takes place in many areas of both our public and private lives.
- Allyship is not an identity – it is a process of building relationships based on trust, consistency and accountability.
An ally actively promotes and aspires to advance the culture of inclusion through intentional, positive and conscious efforts and actions that benefit people as a whole.
Who Can Be an Ally?
Everyone! Each of us are a part of a dominant group at different times. For example: white women can be allies to people of color, men can be allies to women, able-bodied people can be allies to people with disability, economically privileged people can be allies to those who are not, etc.
Helpful learning: What Does It Really Mean To Be An Ally?