Respond to the colleague’s postings below in one or more of the following ways: Ask a probing question. Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting. Offer and support an opinion. Validate an idea with your own experience. Make a suggestion. Expand on your colleague’s posting. Robin’s discussion Allies can be distinguished determined by two characteristics such as first they have a desire to actively support social justice, to nurture the rights of the non-dominant groups, and to end social inequalities that the allies benefit from, and second allies aid by starting meaningful relationships with both people and communities of the non-dominant group they want to ally themselves and to ensure accountability to those people and communities. However, there are several benefits of the ally role such as privilege awareness, support, and resources access, and power sensitivity (Smith et al.2016). Identify a population with which you could become an ally: I would become an ally for the population of substance abuse, such as people with drug addictions. One of the roles I would take on is support and resource access advocate. For example, taking on the role of support and resource advocate would consist of me accessing and mobilizing external resources and assisting people within the population with attaining their treatment goals (Mizock, & Page, 2016). Identify a quote or create a motto to capture the intent of your ally-ship: A quote to capture the intent of my allyship consist of the following: “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” By Angela Y. Davis This quote relates to my allyship because I will advocate for people in the substance abuse population in different ways. I will not only advocate for them by connecting them to resources, but I will also advocate with them to address stigmas about people in the substance abuse population. Identify potential obstacles to ally-ship: An obstacle is allies viewing members of oppressed groups as needing to be saved, which the ally is in a position to provide aid. Another obstacle is the self-direct thinking of allies because a high percentage of dominant groups do not easily or even readily admit their status as a privileged community. Additionally, allyship can be characterized because allies achieve ally identities connected to professional roles, and their allyship may not expand beyond the specifics of those professional roles. For example, allies have the opportunity to go home at the end of the day and disengage from the concerns around which they claim to focus their allyship. Depending on the allyship, relationships with members of oppressed groups can lead to the ally being viewed as working on behalf of others instead of with others (Bourke, 2020). Explain how to address them: The obstacles can be addressed through self-educating such as individual allies need to examine their privilege. For example, one’s ability to call oneself an ally rest on privilege. Also, allies need to form relationships with other allies (Bourke, 2020). References: Bourke, B. (2020). Leaving behind the rhetoric of allyship. Whiteness and Education, 5(2), 179-194. Mizock, L., & Page, K.V. (2016). Evaluating the Ally Role: Contributions, Limitations, and the Activist Position in Counseling and Psychology . Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology , 8(1), 17-33. Smith, J., Puckett, C., & Simon, W. (2016). Indigenous Allyship: An Overview. Wilfred Laurier, 1-36. https://quotefancy.com/angela-y-davis-quotes
