I never really know where I am on the ally-ship spectrum. I have left the apathetic or unaware phase but depending on the topic I move between awareness, ally and advocate. There are some racial issues of which I am aware and while I would do nothing to prevent any person from trying to move that awareness forward it is simply not an area where I have the ability to make significant change. I guess I am thinking of things like an openly racist person being elected in another state. I might share my opinion or donate to their opponent but I would not consider myself an ally in this situation. Also, I would categorize myself as aware when I have obtained new knowledge that I have not had sufficient time to process. There's nothing worse than someone who learns one fact and then tries to beat everyone with it before looking at the big picture and being able to contextualize it so others understand the significance. In some areas I think I am an ally - I know the score and will move in those areas if invited. In other areas I am definitely an advocate. I am willing to have difficult and sometimes painful conversations and I am willing to lose friends over things I think are right. I think the area I advocate for the most is education, probably because it is the area where I am most comfortable and have the greatest ability to impact change. I think it is pretty easy for educators to advocate for equality in education but I think it is more important to advocate for an equal education. By this I mean to advocate for equal primary and secondary school education regardless of place of residence, to advocate for more Black teachers and professors, to advocate for critical content in all curriculums that include the history of all people and an open dialogue how those histories intersect. So I guess what I am saying is that no one is ever at one place on a continuum - but we can try harder every day.
