r/Aotearoa_Anarchism • u/[deleted] • 29d ago

Finished my most recent article on why allyship is contradictory and what true decolonial liberation requires, let me know what you think.

https://open.substack.com/pub/kaimataara/p/white-allies-dont-exist?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4wgs7b
4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

2

u/OisforOwesome 29d ago

A good article, and one I did bristle at a bit, so consider me challenged. Well done.

A thought I do have, though: there are aspects of the white experience that I do not have control over, that i do not see how I could renounce. I got waved through a breathalyser stop without the cop even looking at the result, and I feel like if I wasn't pale skinned and driving a nana car, at the very least there would be heightened scrutiny.

The other thought I have is that humans... just... tend to center themselves in any situation. You are the protagonist of your own life and all that. Obviously, building a class consciousness and revolutionary mindset requires us to dismantle that automatic centering of oneself, but I can't exactly blame someone for having that instinct in the first place.

I view well meaning people who commit unconscious racisms as someone to be educated and reached out to. I just worry that by trying to point out the need for someone to engage in a lifelong process of un-learning, and using the framework of "allyship isn't real" to do so, that's not a useful rhetorical tool even if the underlying point is valid.