Workshop: "Allies", Active Bystanders, and Gaslighting

Friday, March 21, 2014

Speaker: Rachel McKinnon from University of Calgary.

In a recent blog post, Mia McKenzie convincingly argues for the end of the term and concept of "allies." Like her, I'm done with allies. In this talk, I raise some ways in which ally culture has resulted in a number of very serious problems for those that "allies" seek to support. Drawing on real-life examples, I connect ally culture to a lack of accountability and a worrying prevalence of gaslighting, which is a kind of epistemic injustice. In its place, I suggest that we focus on people being good active bystanders, "currently operating in solidarity with" those they seek to support, as McKenzie puts it.