Allies in the Fight Working for Justice with Clients and Communities Dr. Sheila Addison, LMFT http:// www.drsheilaaddison.com Presented at AAMFT 2017, Atlanta, GA Including slides from Sara Smollett & Valerie Aurora w/permission - https://frameshiftconsulting.com/ally-skills-workshop/
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AAMFT 2017 - Allies in the Fight: Working for Justice w/Clients & Communities
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Allies in the Fight
Working for Justice with Clients
and Communities
Dr. Sheila Addison, LMFThttp://www.drsheilaaddison.com
Presented at AAMFT 2017, Atlanta, GA
Including slides from Sara Smollett & Valerie Aurora w/permission - https://frameshiftconsulting.com/ally-skills-workshop/
Privilege: an unearned advantage given by society to some people but not all
Oppression: systemic, pervasive inequality that is present throughout society, that benefits people with more privilege and harms those with fewer privileges
Terminology
Target: someone who suffers from oppression (also called "a member of a marginalized group")
Ally: a member of a social group that enjoys some privilege that is working to end oppression and understand their own privilege
Actions
Example
Privilege: The ability to walk into a convenience
store and have the owner assume you are
there to buy things and not steal them
Oppression: The self-reinforcing system of
stories, TV, news coverage, and legal system
stereotyping Black people as criminals, that
benefits non-Black people and harms Black
people
Example
Target: Any Black person who wants
to enter a convenience store
Ally: A non-Black person who
donates to legal system reform
organizations, publicly opposes
racist policies and actions, votes in
anti-racist ways, & reads articles
about this privilege to understand it
better
Diversity & inclusion
Diversity: The state of having people in a
group who differ along race, gender,
sexuality, age, disability, religion, class,
caregiver status, etc.
Inclusion: Everyone in a diverse group is
valued, included, and respected, without
unfair discrimination or bias
CC BY Steve Garry
https://flic.kr/p/2TTztX
Diversity & inclusion
An individual can’t be “diverse” -
diversity exists only in the
context of a group
Many efforts focus on increasing
diversity without also
increasing inclusion
CC BY Senorhorst Jahnsen
https://flic.kr/p/5QSiBv
Diversity & inclusion
• Volunteer-run affinity groups
• Minority scholarships
• Advice books aimed at targets
• Volunteer-run mentoring programs
• Recruiting outreach
• Conferences or discussion boards for marginalized groups
Diversity & inclusion
Most work is aimed at changing
behavior of targets
Less work is aimed at changing
behavior of targeters & allies
Changing targets’ bx?
• Targets:
• Directly benefit from change and are more
self-motivated
• Are often more aware of oppression
• Are often lower status and easier to tell
what to do
• Are seen as the cause of the problem
• Avoids confronting feelings of guilt
in privileged people
What about the targeters?
• Targeters:
• Have “something to lose” if their behavior has to change
• Are able to ignore others’ oppression
• Are often higher status and harder to tell what to do
• Are good at deflecting blame… and backed up by institutional inertia
More likely to have unpaid caregiver responsibilities
CC BY Tax Credits
https://flic.kr/p/bZwHv5
Targets are retaliated against
"[...] Ethnic minority or female leaders who engage in diversity-valuing behavior are penalized with worse performance ratings; whereas [white] or male leaders who engage in diversity-valuing behavior are not penalized for doing so."- Hekman, Johnson, Yang & Maw Der
Foo (2016)
Does valuing diversity result in worse performance ratings for minority and female leaders? http://amj.aom.org/content/early/2016/03/03/amj.2014.0538.abstract
Targets have less power & influence
• < 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are people of color
• < 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women
• “Smurfette Principle” – K. Pollitt
• TV shows have all-male casts with one woman
• “The probability that a woman occupies a top management team position is 51 percent lower if another woman holds a position on the same team.” – Deszo, Ross, & Uribe, 2015
• Small programs “can’t have two” (queer people, POC, people with a diversity focus, etc.) CC BY-SA Bruno Girin
https://flic.kr/p/4Mv4o2
Targets are demeaned for speaking out
A response to an article I wrote on my blog about using privilege
to make things better for targeted people:
“Just be peaceful.” And yet…
Allies have more time and energy
Allies have more money
CC BY Pictures of Money https://flic.kr/p/s6895e
Allies are often in the majority
Allies have more power & influence
Allies aren't harmed for valuing diversity
CC BY Vic https://flic.kr/p/8v6v22
Allies = “altruistic, giving, kind”
CC BY Kat Ter Haar https://flic.kr/p/8ugZks
Why are allies needed?
• Even in 2017:
• Our workplaces, training programs, and
conferences can still be sites of injury,
exclusion, and silencing for vulnerable people.
• While many therapists, supervisors, and faculty
understand the effects of oppression, few are
prepared to directly intervene as allies in the
moment when others experience it
Why are allies needed?
• What are some examples of
exclusion, micro- or macro-
aggressions, harmful policies,
bullying/hurtful interaations, etc.
you’ve seen or heard about in your
professional settings?
A theory of allies
• Privileged people have advantages in fighting oppression
• “Difference” models de-emphasize power• Better than “colorblindness”
(sameness)
• Not all have equal access
• Not all are equally impacted
A theory of allies
• Crenshaw’s intersectionality
suggests: most people have some
identities that are privileged, even
as others are devalued
• Therapists, faculty, and supervisors
all occupy positions of power
relative to clients, students, and
supervisees… so…
• Strategies for ally work
should be part of all family
therapists’ skill sets
Ally = action?
Ally = action
The active ally uses their relative power to block, frustrate, and underminesystems that harm those who are less powerful