Over the past couple of weeks, many people have been asking themselves how to be an ally in the fight against racial injustice. Cityline’s Tracy Moore joined CityNews to share advice on how to be a true ally not only today, but far into the future so we can see real change.
How do you make space for those experiences that we’re not hearing about and have no validity in the mainstream because no one’s listening and no one’s believing.
Are you going to be the person who is still going on Instagram and jumping into people’s comments to defend them from ignorance after it’s not cool to say #blacklivesmatter on Instagram.
It is incredibly hard to speak up for what you believe in and every time I do it, I can feel the eyerolls, you know people are not getting it. It is a tough situation to be in. Are you going to be able to be that soldier? Because that’s why allyship is. It is a verb, it is an active thing, it does not end when the coolness has disappeared from this issue. It is a lifetime commitment to making sure there is equality.
Don’t look around and say, I don’t see colour. I see it a million times a day on my social media feeds. You need to see my colour, you need to understand that I’m walking a different walk than you are because of my colour. I’m not saying treat me differently because of it, but understand that society is.
My son is 12 years old so he’s going to move swiftly into the phase of “your son is very cute” to “your son is aggressive and a threat.” It’s going to happen naturally, that’s the way it goes. This is our reality, this is our walk.
Watch Tracy’s powerful interview here: