About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

11 Technium Soc. Sci. J. 478 (2020)
Performative Allyship

handle is hein.journals/techssj11 and id is 521 raw text is: Technium Social Sciences Journal Vol. 11, 478-481, September 2020 ISSN: 2668-7798 SOCIAL SCIENCES JOURNAL www.techniumscience.com Performative Allyship Peter Kalina Professor of Radiology, Mayo Clinic. Rochester, MN, USA kalina.peter(,mavo .edu Abstract. Perfonnative allyship refers to someone from a nonmarginalized group professing support and solidarity with a marginalized group, but in a way that is not helpful. Worse yet, the allyship is done in a way that may actually be harmful to the cause. The ally is motivated by some type of reward. On social media, that reward is a virtual pat on the back for being a good person or for being on the right side of a cause, or on the right side of history. It is entirely possible to be opposed to racism or anti-Semitism while at the same time feeling free to say nothing. This is preferable to simply repeating what you're being compelled to say. Either be a true ally, or be comfortable being silent. Keywords. performative, allyship I must confess. Despite what I had always considered to be a pretty decent Long Island public school education, prior to June 19, 2020 I had never heard of Juneteenth. Prior to writing this, I had never heard of Performative Allyship (also referred to as performative activism or optical allyship). You really do learn something new every day. Performative allyship refers to someone from a nonmarginalized group professing support and solidarity with a marginalized group, but in a way that is not helpful. Worse yet, the allyship is done in a way that may actually be harmful to the cause. The ally is motivated by some type of reward. On social media, that reward is a virtual pat on the back for being a good person or for being on the right side of a cause, or on the right side of history. (Jennings, 2020; Phillips, 2020). In essence, it is a show. Most recently, performative allyship has come to light in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many people came forward to show their concern on social media. These forms of minimal efforts, such as for example posting a black square for #BlackOutTuesday, or shouting for justice and then doing nothing else after that; are examples of performative allyship. After these posts, just continuing on with our lives and posting photos of what we had for dinner, or of our super cute dog, is not helpful. Rather, it is a useless, performative trend. We cannot simply care about racism or anti-Semitism when it is convenient, when it is in the moment or when it is trending. We cannot post to Instagram to prove that we are not racist, simply because other people are doing so, and then just forget about the issue and carry on with business as usual (Lee; 2020). It does not help the authenticity and progress of a movement if that's all we're contributing, if we're posting just to save face. We shouldn't care because everyone else is. We should care because true injustices exist; ones we really believe in, people 478

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most