Thoughts on Self-educating as an Ally

I was very generously given the opportunity to participate on a panel at LinkedIn’s Global Town Hall today focused on the events that our country finds itself in. The focus of the panel was allyship, and I was asking the following question about how I have educated myself as an ally. I wanted to share my answer with my network and, knowing that allyship is a journey of perpetual learning, ask you all to share the resources you have relied on in educating yourself so that I and others could benefit from them too.

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Self-educating: When seeking to understand how to be an ally and contribute to racial justice, how have you found information and resources? Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

I’m going to start with the second part of that question - what I would do differently -  because it sets the context for my approach to learning. Allyship STARTS with learning and understanding and until recently my education about the circumstances of individuals of different races, cultures, gender, and sexual orientations happened mostly serendipitously - through the books, news and articles I read, the movies and documentaries I watched, and so on, that were recommended to me or that I happened to stumble upon. What I have realized, however, is that allyship requires intentionality and being an intentional ally requires that one practice intentional learning. Seeking information, soliciting feedback, questioning perspectives.

As for how I’ve been approaching this learning journey, it comes in two ways.

First, I’ve been seeking out information from trusted sources. Publications that have a reputation of delivering factual, thought provoking content like the New York Times and the Atlantic. Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU, and the Anti Racism Project. And perhaps most recently, recommendations from my fellow LinkedIn employees via the feed and through our DIBs team. There are also many collections of anti-racist articles, books, movies and podcasts that I’ve started to dig into, like this one that simplify the exercise of finding good content. There’s no shortage of information out there but it’s important that it comes from factual, trusted sources. 

Second, and arguably more important, is that I am surrounded by a diverse team of individuals here at LinkedIn with whom I have been fortunate to have eye-opening and insightful conversations with and who have shared their unique experiences with me. Loni Olazaba, Lori Allen, Sabry Tozin, Erica Lockheimer, Francis Tsang … they are my shepherds on this learning journey. And these conversations that we’ve had didn’t just materialize on a first interaction. We’ve built these relationships over time and through mutual trust and consideration we’ve been able to talk about really complicated things. Expanding your circle to include people who come from different walks of life, have different experiences and perspectives is a critical way for us all to open our eyes. To get to know each other on a more human level and though we may not be able to understand someone else’s life experience, we can stand with them and feel for them, and learn from them.

Special thanks to Emilia Shapiro, for being my editor on this. Any and all eloquence comes from her finger tips.