Better Allies Snippet #1 (The Ally Journey)

This month we're starting with the first chapter of Karen Catlin's book Better Allies 2nd ed.

After an introduction covering Catlin’s work as V.P. of Engineering at Adobe, and their experiences with discrimination against talented women and minorities—often unintended—we begin with Chapter 1: The Ally Journey. Catlin writes:

“Allyship is a process. Even seasoned allies with wide open minds are constantly learning and absorbing new information about how to leverage their privilege to support people who are different from them… your first tip for being an ally is to be open to learning, improving, and changing your opinion. And recognize that being an ally is a journey.”

This opening sets the stage for us to approach these concepts with a growth mindset, and to use our skills and experiences as SUNY employees as part of that journey.

On page 12, the book delves into the issue of privilege:

“Understanding privilege is key to becoming a better ally. At its core, privilege is a set of unearned benefits given to people who fit into a specific social group.”

Further:

“People who are marginalized in multiple ways experience amplified marginalization and drastically reduced privilege. This is due to intersectionality, the fact that the combination of someone's identities creates an intersection of overlapping and compounded oppressions.”

Catlin defines intersectionality in the book, and other definitions are easily found online as well.

“Now here's where it gets tricky: Privilege is often invisible to those who have it. This means that many people get defensive when someone points out their privilege. And many people are quick to respond that they've had their fair share of difficulties and faced down prejudices too. But privilege is not about who you are as an individual as much as it is about what groups you belong to and how these groups are viewed and treated by society… Being privileged doesn't mean you've never worked hard and it doesn't necessarily mean your life has been easy.”

We are all advantaged in some ways and disadvantaged in others. Striving to be a better ally requires us to be more self-aware of our particular privileges.

On page 17 Catlin reminds us that “privilege is often a key ingredient in cultivating professional confidence.” Examples include:

• Confidence that you're getting paid equitably.
• Confidence that when you make a point in a meeting others will pay attention.
• Confidence that people believe you've landed your current role because of experience and potential.

So, you can use your positions of privilege to help others. On pages 18-27, the book covers different types of roles that allies can play. The ally roles covered include the:

1. Sponsor: when you support the work of a specific colleague
2. Champion: when you speak up for others in public
3. Amplifier: where you ensure that the voices of others will be heard
4. Advocate: when you enable someone else to get an opportunity and use your power to bring others into exclusive circles
5. Scholar: where you learn as much as possible and then bring that information out to your network
6. Upstander: when you speak up for others acting as Catlin says in “the opposite of a bystander.” The upstander “pushes back on offensive comments or jokes even if no one within earshot might be offended or hurt.”
7. Confidant: when you listen to others and create a space for them “to express their fears, frustrations and needs.”

Catlin closes out chapter 1 by explaining that we are all imperfect people, we're all learning, and as allies we need to be OK with sometimes getting it wrong. Being afraid to speak up because we're not quite sure we're going to do it in the right way means we do nothing. An imperfect ally is still better than the silent bystander.