Hi everyone. Today I want to talk about anti-Black racism and allyship. These are concepts that I
think a lot about. I teach a lot about them, I talk a lot about them across social media, as you
will have already have seen. But in this moment right now in the thick of COVID I think it is so
important that I use my voice to chime in with a collective on talking about these pressing
issues. And my message isn't just for white people - although yes my message definitely is targeted
at white people - it is also for other communities of color that need to stand up by using our voice
and actions to provide allyship in interrupting anti-Black racism. And I'm thinking in particular
about people from my community, South Asian communities. We often largely benefit from the
efforts that people from across Black communities engage in in order to promote anti-racism and
anti-oppression. And when I say we benefit from the efforts we can be doing so much more to use
our voice and actions to fight against anti-racism on a whole, disrupting white supremacy on a whole.
But in particular here we need to use our voices more, our actions more to combat, to interrupt,
dismantle, disrupt, anti-Black racism. This is such a hard time for all of us as a collective
as people of color watching what is happening in society but in particular we can see how
the inequities that have an adverse impact on people from Black communities is highly
prevalent and highly visible. We knew that these inequities existed pre-COVID but during COVID
it feels more amplified because what we're seeing is not only acts of police brutality,
civilian brutality, - police brutality I'm thinking of George Floyd - civilian brutality
I'm thinking Ahmaud Arbery - I'm thinking of the disproportionate arrests that are taking place as
it relates to policing around physical distancing. I'm thinking about the disproportionate rates of
COVID's impact on people from Black communities across the U.S. In Canada we do not know because
if we are tracking the data we are not sharing it which is another example of systemic racism
because data matters because it shows how racism and white supremacy permeate our systems and
practices. So if this feels heavy for you it makes sense because this is a heavy time. Because we're
seeing the inequities there on display in a way that we have never seen before. And for
a lot of us especially those of us on the front lines of doing equity and advocacy work it feels
really lonely because yes we are virtually able to commune and we are engaging and we are doing
our best but I miss my people. I miss being in the trenches communing with people in person in order
to work and advocate and fight, disrupt all of the inequities we're seeing. I want to talk about
allyship because allyship matters. So many people ask me on the regular: what can I be doing as a
white person, as a person of color to be an ally on a whole but more specifically as it relates in
this context to anti-Black - being allies that relates to people from Black communities but
interrupting anti-Black racism. And there are a number of things that you can be doing. First
of all, figure out what are your biases that you hold as it relates to Black people because
your ability to use your voice and change your behavior use your actions your power privilege
to disrupt anti-Black racism will directly tie to the negative biases the messages meaning that your
brain holds about Black people. So you need to figure out what your biases are. Take Harvard's
implicit association test that, the race IAT in particular. Secondly it is really important that
you have a deep understanding of power privilege supremacy. How systems of supremacy power
privilege racial supremacy in particular permeate our systems that enable us to be in a place where
Black people experience racism as it relates to healthcare, housing, employment, justice and so
much more. And then what we do once we have this understanding in hand is we start to use the power
and privilege that we have. So for example as a brown person watching the racism directed towards
Black people for me to use my power and privilege as a way to disrupt. On disruption: we to listen
and hear the story so that we have a better sense of the lived experience of how racism has an
adverse impact on people from Black communities and then using your voice in your actions to
interrupt it. When I say using your voice in your actions I mean actually speaking up and speaking
out. So talking about this with your family and your friends and naming the fact that we are
seeing all these racist inequities happening right now, having conversations about this. But not just
that. Calling out the inequities we're seeing - so in the workplace ensuring that our recruitment
practices are anti-racist as it relates to how Black people are treated making sure
that we're stepping up as mentors and sponsors and advocates to make sure that Black people,
Black professionals, team members we're working with have opportunities. That we're calling out
the biases that we see as it relates to who advances. But more specifically in society:
calling upon our politicians, our leaders and others to do more to address the systemic racism
that Black people experience. We need to ensure that we continue to be in a place where we are
listening, hearing the stories and using our power privilege, our voices to interrupt. As you can see
I feel really passionate about this and like so many people across social media who you are
hearing speaking and sharing, I feel like we could be doing so much more and it really hurts. And it
hurts as a person of color as a brown person. I can't imagine what it feels like to be Black in
this moment right now. And this is why I call upon all of us from across cultural communities
to step up in serving as standing as allies to people from Black communities in this moment.