Joyce Leung

     Before this project, I always wondered what is allyship in the first place, and what differentiates between performative and genuine allyship. It is easy to re-share posts about anti-racism movements and information about how racism impacts different marginalized communities, but we might not be taking the time and space to reflect on our personal relations and fundamental purposes for engaging in these actions.

 

     As I read through the creators’ personal experiences, I learned that there are indeed many ways to demonstrate allyship. But at the core, allyship should be a continuous process of learning, challenging, and confronting to show support. This can be engaging in physical advocacy (e.g., writing letters to government officials, using our own platforms to bring awareness to BIPOC creators and artists). Additionally, it can also be on the more implicit, subtle level of confronting our own biases, taking the effort to research the history behind the social issues and events that occur, and challenging social practices that perpetuate harmful ideologies and deepen the everyday living barriers for marginalized groups. To engage in critical thinking about our relationships to anti-racism and being an ally, I strive to ask myself these questions: 

 

• What am I learning about – what concepts or ideologies does this piece of information suggest? Do I need to conduct more research to understand the background contexts of this event or issue? Are there possibly individuals or groups of people being excluded from the narrative?  

• If I’m not sure about something I’ve learned, whom should I consult other than social media sources? 

• Why do I plan to engage in this action or practice in the first place? What is my goal or purpose? 

• How can I engage in this practice feasibly with intention and consistency? What does that look like?  

• Will my actions or mindset change have a realistic impact? Who does it impact and how?  

• How can I apply what I’ve learned, my previous knowledge, skills, and experiences to confront racism and continue to be an advocate?  

​

      Aside from gaining a greater understanding of allyship, the research project has been a valuable lesson showing the ways in which artists of different backgrounds and experiences utilize online verbal art as a creative means to discuss the importance of anti-racism. Another important aspect of analyzing verbal art is doing additional research on the related history and social/political events, which is especially important when we do not understand the creator’s message at first without background knowledge of these events and movements. Looking back, I not only learned to critically analyze content discussing race and anti-racism, but also in being mindful of how the content itself may demonstrate colorblind ideologies (e.g., the mentality of “all lives matter” and “we are all the same/we bleed the same” without considering the significance of specific issues in the present social context).  

​

     I am very thankful to Dr. Pennesi, my research partner Sapphire Mendonca, and undergraduate student Ewere Agbamuche for their continuous ideas, feedback, and dedication along the processes of data analysis and developing our research questions, and the opportunity to learn from each other as we bring our research ideas into fruition!