Optical allyship, also called performative allyship, is when a person with white privilege acts like an ally to BIPOC but is really doing it to make themselves look good, not to actually fight racism. I’ve paraphrased a few of Layla F. Saad’s examples below:
1. Posting anti-racist content on your social media to signal how woke you are, but not ( Read more... )

Layla F. Saad describes white saviourism this way: “This idea that BIPOC countries and people are inferior in worth, capability, intelligence, and self-determination as compared to white-dominated countries and people with white privilege is a foundational aspect of white supremacy. This sentiment is what leads to white saviourism - the belief that ( Read more... )

Me and White Supremacy Day #17: You and Tokenism

Layla F. Saad describes tokenism this way: “In the case of white supremacy, tokenism essentially uses BIPOC as props or meaningless symbols to make it look like antiracism is being practiced while continuing to maintain the status quo of white as the dominant norm.”

Sometimes with these prompts I ( Read more... )

Today’s chapter starts with a quote from Toni Morrison: “I have had reviews in the past that accused me of not writing about white people…as though our lives have no meaning and no depth without the white gaze. And I’ve spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one if any of my books.”

This quote ( Read more... )

I learned a lot about myself during Week 2 of the challenge, identifying many things I have to work on to deprogram the white supremacy in me. But it is good to feel that I have tangible things to work on and a direction to go in.
Week 3 is about allyship, and the first day is about white apathy. As Layla F. Saad describes it, “White apathy is the ( Read more... )

So I am on Day Fourteen (though it’s taken me a lot longer than fourteen days to get to this point). I have learned a lot about white supremacy and about myself over the first half of this challenge. Some of it has been uncomfortable, and some of it has just felt like an overwhelming amount of new information to process. My perception of myself is ( Read more... )

I have practiced yoga for years, but only recently became aware of the way it has been culturally appropriated in the West. Like many Westerners, I thought of yoga primarily as a good workout. Then a friend invited me to a Sivananda retreat centre for a weekend. The first morning started with a solid hour of chanting and meditation, and I realized ( Read more... )

There are a lot of racist stereotypes that I’ve encountered in Canada: indigenous people are considered lazy drunks who should just get over the whole residential school thing, Jews are greedy and only care about money, Muslims are here to force shariah law onto Canadians, Arabs aren’t trustworthy, Asians are bad drivers but are good at math, and ( Read more... )

I’ll be honest - I have been dreading this particular day of the challenge. I’m an educator, a school librarian, and I love my students. I certainly don’t want to think that I could ever behave in a discriminatory way towards any of them, or that I could hurt a child in my care.

But I had a moment, about two years ago, when I read that black ( Read more... )

Today’s prompts again ask me to examine common racial stereotypes where I live. The stereotypes that I’ve encountered include that black men are lazy, inarticulate, unintelligent, hypersexual, violent, dangerous, and frightening.

Although this entry is supposed to focus on black men, I think it’s important to tell a story about the perceptions I ( Read more... )