In this episode of Sacred Tension Ally Henny joins us to give an intro on how to be good allies to the black community. She defines basic terms and gives white people some hard, probing questions. If you are new to conversations about race, this episode is for you.
Ally has been writing about race, identity, culture, and racial conciliation on Twitter, her personal Facebook profile, and on her blog, The Armchair Commentary, since 2014. She is a regular contributor for The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, where she writes about black motherhood and other topics related to the black experience from a faith-based perspective. Ally has participated in several panels and facilitated discussions on America’s race issue and has conducted numerous personal education and coaching sessions for individuals seeking to participate in racial conciliation.
Find Ally Henny here.
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Stephen Bradford Long 
Ok, these are my quick thoughts after a first listen:
I don’t get this ‘make your allies uncomfortable’ tactic. As a gay activist in the 80s and 90s, I did not find alienating allies with targeted discomfort to be very productive. I always tried to put the focus on the work to be done, not the psychogenealogy of their personal history with the cause, and didn’t require any “processing” before accepting their help.
I would also like to highlight the diversity that exists within the white race. Ally seems to be slighting the various white ethnicities, which I don’t think is accurate. I think she may be talking about cultural assimilation, but not all cultures lose their roots as part of that process.
A lot of (maybe most) white people I know are ‘mutts’ and have multiple ethnic backgrounds. I find people to be much richer than their skin color.
The tears is a woman thing, not a white thing.
And oppression, as I understand and experience it, is an act. Usually actively denying opportunities to minorities that are extended to the majority.
Having an emotion is not an act. Language is not an act.
I do think she’s exactly right about fragile allies. My experience with that has been the same.
Thank you both for the good work that you do. Hail Satan!
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