Letter to the Self-Proclaimed Ally

To whom it may concern—but honestly, you know who you are.

I tried very hard to forget about high school. I am sure that many people can agree that adolescence can be a time of chaos and confusion for a variety of reasons. However, many of the instances that left the worst tastes in my mouth happen to have been the constant performances of “white allyship” by my white counterparts, whether it be faculty or my peers.

My alma mater, Columbus Alternative High School aka “CAHS” (Columbus, Ohio) is an academically rigorous college-prep institution that has no sports. It is the #1 high school in the city and #49 in the state. It is located in a low income, high crime inner city neighborhood known as North Linden. Unsurprisingly, many suspect it is in the beginning stages of gentrification. This specific part of North Linden should not be confused with Clintonville, the quiet white hipster suburb-Esque neighborhood that is literally down the street. CAHS is about 60% Black and 70% minority, so very Black and very smart. All of this background information about my former high school is to frame this short anecdote:

In my 12th grade IB Higher Level English class we were tasked with reading a play entitled “Master Harold”...and the boys by Athol Fugard. After not teaching a single work of literature by a Black person or anyone who wasn’t white for the entire year, my teacher thought a play about the South African apartheid centering a young white boy with two Black adult servants was the representation we needed. Of course, this irked me and several of my peers. The tipping point came when this teacher referred to the author (a white man) as South African. We had literally just discussed how the apartheid came to be and the centuries of brutalization that preceded it. Completely fed up with her sh*t and outdone by this entire chain of events, I raised my hand and said “You can not claim ancestry to a country that you raped and pillaged your way into. That man is either Dutch or English, not South African”. The class fell silent and I repeated myself once more. Her response was, “With your logic that means I am not able to claim ancestry to this land, right?” I just looked at her and probably rolled my eyes, I think she got the message. Later that day someone told me that she ended up crying in the teacher’s lounge complaining about how “all the brown kids hated me”. Clearly I wasn’t the only one with a bone to pick with her.

At some point later in the year, this same teacher ended up going on a tangent about how she was our ally and how she would fight for all of her students of color. It was this kind of softcore, benevolent racism that made me scratch my head. Who told her she was an ally? Was it after she willingly disclosed to an entire class that she tolerated her parents’ racism until she had her [white] child? Coming out of that comfy suburb to come to teach a bunch of “brown kids” in North Linden is masturbatory behavior and performance, not allyship. Of course, by saying all of this it raises the question: what does allyship truly look like?

As we enter into what seems to be a new aged Civil Rights Movement, I’ve been closely observing how white people have been positioning themselves in this brewing revolution. Most of this observation has been through social media. Much like my former English teacher, many of these “allies” have given this title to themselves. From the infamous black square debacle on Instagram, to the “memeification” of the murder of Breonna Taylor, to the gross misrepresentations of our demands to defund the police and its eventual abolition. A common complaint is that the expectations that we have for our oppressors are extremely high. I agree, taking a stance to defend and protect the most marginalized of our society can be laborious. However, this is the reality: white supremacy and anti-Blackness are deeply ingrained in every crevice of our society. White supremacy is a major force in the development of an individual’s personhood, their broader worldview, and their ability to live in the world around “others”. So as whites, you have been conditioned to embrace an identity which has been deployed against Black and Third World people with the sole intent of being used as a strategy of authority, full stop.

So, my so-called white ally, it is your duty to constantly question everything you have been taught, complicate your position within society, and reckon with your own inherent complicity. Do not task Black people with explaining racism to you and for starters, have dialogues with your white colleagues, friends, and family members. This work is not easy and there are no trophies in this game. Any strife you may feel for being put on the spot will always pale in comparison to the daily plight of Black people across the globe. I’ll be honest, the main reason I felt compelled to write this article featuring my high school English teacher is because I was informed by my younger brother that she continues to include the play “Master Harold”...and the boys in her IB English curriculum to this day.

My hope is not to punish or embarrass those I implicate in this piece. But it is my intent to implore you all to do better and to hold you all accountable. In this historical moment reflect upon how you have actually shown up in this fight for liberation, if at all. If you want to be an “ally”, step up to the occasion with sincerity and for God’s sake please stop teaching that damn book.