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Umm, say “Good Morning”?

I’m a white man who wants to signal allyship with people of colour. What should I do?

Allyship? Why not just treat folk as folk?

23 thoughts on “Umm, say “Good Morning”?”

  1. I’m a 60-year-old white American male and have done some work and had training around acknowledging my racist background and lingering internalised superiority. In multicultural environments, is there a way to indicate my allyship with other people, letting them know I’m safe, or at least not hostile, without coming across as trying too hard? My approach has been “act naturally” but I kind of want to let people around me know they can relax a little. Perhaps it’s just a moment of eye contact and a head nod. And maybe this question reveals I’m not even ready to be that person. I’m wrestling …

    If the Russkies nuke em, it’ll be a mercy killing at this point.

  2. So I would strongly advise against making eye contact or nodding your head at random strangers who happen to be a people of colour. If you do they will probably conclude that you are racialising them and feel patronised and insulted. Or they’ll think you’re trying to get in their pants, which is also not a great look. Either way, you risk achieving the opposite of what you are hoping; making them feel unsafe and weirded out.

    Jesus….….f*cking………Christ.

    These people are evil.

  3. Offer reparations. If you have a small statue of an eighteenth-century white slaver, you can throw it into their beer.

  4. Steve across the Pond

    “Please tell me how to grovel and show my submissives.”

    You shouldn’t be making attempts to appease people who might possibly despise you simply because you’re white.

    You also shouldn’t think you need to make a ridiculous effort to get people to like you. If they’re expecting you to act a certain way so they’ll accept you, they’re not worth it.

  5. “Racism can take up far too much of our time and energy but it doesn’t define our every waking moment”
    But surely that’s what systemic racism means? It permeates society and affects POC at an intrinsic level. As Saint Kendi says, there is no such thing as an act which is free of the potential for racism.

    How can they maintain the grift?

  6. My best advice is don’t adopt half measures which will be interpreted as racist. Don’t smile as that will be interpreted as racist. In fact, don’t muck around, just blow your fucking brains out. Or theirs…

  7. About 2 million generations ago your ancestors migrated from Africa… so you are already Black and need not worry about racism.

  8. Crawl on all fours into the nearest ‘Hood wearing a gimpsuit with a neck-chain. Have a sign round your neck saying “Lookin’ for a Black Massa”. Take a bag filled with cash from proceeds of realisation of all your property to offer them.

  9. In fairness to the Guardian, the article does say what you said. It just took several paragraphs of somewhat condescending prose to do so.

  10. By coincidence, this popped up in my feed this morning.

    New research suggests that bias may also shape daily interactions between racial minorities and white people, even those whites who tend to be less biased.

    According to new research by Cydney Dupree, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Yale SOM, white liberals tend to downplay their own verbal competence in exchanges with racial minorities, compared to how other white Americans act in such exchanges. The study is scheduled for publication in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

    Notice how the discussion begins? They claim to be studying Whites who are LESS BIASED. The assumption is that White liberals are not biased against Black people, while their research shows exactly the opposite as we shall see. The researchers are liberal, know that liberals are good, and therefore liberals are not the biased ones. Conservatives, who behave the same with both Whites and minorities, are the genuinely biased ones.

    In equal parts fascinating, hilarious, and terrifying.

  11. “The white liberal is the worst enemy to America and the worst enemy to the black man”.
    Malcolm X

  12. @Julia. Not even a beta. Those can still have a spine of sorts if the situation calls for it.

    This is a classic example of a delta cuck.

  13. Golliwog wallpaper.

    @BiS: – You owe me a new keyboard. I’ve just had the added bonus of having to explain to my French other half what a Golliwog was with attendant illustrations.

    Sacre Bleu!

  14. He can’t cause any micro-aggressions if he kills himself. Plus, we no longer have to listen to his drivel. It’s a win-win.

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