Abstract
It is not enough solely to be an ally, but one must be a co-conspirator—this requires risk-taking and rule-breaking—the term “ally” does not capture this radical embodiment (Clemens, Ally or accomplice? The language of activism. Retrieved from https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/ally-oraccomplice-the-language-of-activism, 2017). We posit that “performative allyship” is the practice of citing buzzwords, creating social posts to perform allyship with rudimentary understandings of race and racism, and gestures that promote the significant moral compass of an individual, as opposed to dismantling oppressive systems. This chapter provides a conceptual framework, which we refer to as, I-ARC, an intersectional ant-racist co-conspirator framework. I-ARC explains how researchers and teachers can merely resist performing allyship and achieve responsive, inclusive and sustainable change for racially minoritized students.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Albert, D., & Cover, L. (2019). From Saviorism to Co-Conspiring. Retrieved from https://www.promise54.org/from-saviorism-to-co-conspiring/
Apple, M. W. (2001). Educating the “right” way: Markets, standards, god, and inequality. Routledge.
Ayers, W. (2010). To teach: The journey of a teacher. Teachers College Press.
Bettencourt, G. M. (2020). “You can’t be a class ally if you’re an upper-class person because you don’t understand”: Working-class students’ definitions and perceptions of social class allyship. The Review of Higher Education, 44(2), 265–291. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2020.0041
Bishop, A. (2002). Becoming an ally: Breaking the cycle of oppression in people. Zed Books.
Broido, E. M. (2000). The development of social justice allies during college: A phenomenological investigation. Journal of College Student Development, 41(1), 3–18.
Carlson, J., Leek, C., Casey, E., Tolman, R., & Allen, C. (2019). What’s in a name? A synthesis of “allyship” elements from academic and activist literature. Journal of Family Violence, 1–10.
Clayton, D. M. (2018). Black lives matter and the civil rights movement: A comparative analysis of two social movements in the United States. Journal of Black Studies, 49(5), 448–480. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934718764099
Clemens, C. (2017). Ally or accomplice? The language of activism. Retrieved from https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/ally-oraccomplice-the-language-of-activism
Crenshaw, K. (1990). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1241.
Davis, C. H., III, Harris, J. C., Stokes, S., & Harper, S. R. (2019). But is it activist?: Interpretive criteria for activist scholarship in higher education. The Review of Higher Education, 42(5), 85–108. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2019.0046
Dennison, A., Lund, E., Brodhead, M., Mejia, L., Armenta, A., & Leal, J. (2019). Delivering home-supported applied behavior analysis therapies to culturally and linguistically diverse families. Behavior Analysis in Practice, OnlineFirst, 1–12.
Drakulich, K., Wozniak, K. H., Hagan, J., & Johnson, D. (2020). Race and policing in the 2016 presidential election: Black lives matter, the police, and dog whistle politics. Criminology, 58(2), 370–402. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12239
Edwards, K. E. (2006). Aspiring social justice ally identity development: A conceptual model. NASPA Journal, 43(4), 39–60.
Evans-Winters, V. E., & Esposito, J. (2010). Other People’s daughters: Critical race feminism and black girls’ education. Educational Foundations, 24, 11–24.
Feagin, J. R. (2006). Systemic racism: A theory of oppression. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Fine, M., Weis, L., Powell, L., & Wong, M. (Eds.). (1997). Off white: Readings on race, power and society. Routledge.
Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Routledge.
Freelon, D., McIlwain, C. D., & Clark, M. (2016). Beyond the hashtags: #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter, and the online struggle for offline justice. Center for Media & Social Impact, American University, Forthcoming.
Garza, A. (2014). A herstory of the #blacklivesmatter movement by alicia garza. The Feminist Wire. https://thefeministwire.com/2014/10/blacklivesmatter-2/
Genius. (2010, December). Lil Wayne (Ft. Cory Gunz)—6 foot 7 foot. Retrieved from inter https://genius.com/Lil-wayne-6-foot-7-foot-lyrics
Harris, J. C., & Patton, L. D. (2019). Un/doing intersectionality through higher education research. The Journal of Higher Education, 90(3), 347–372.
Haynes, N., Cooper, L. A., Albert, M. A., & Association of Black Cardiologists. (2020). At the heart of the matter: Unmasking and addressing the toll of COVID-19 on diverse populations. Circulation, 142(2), 105–107.
Itagaki, L. (2016). Civil racism: The 1992 Los Angeles rebellion and the crisis of racial burnout. University of Minnesota Press.
Jackson, R. G., Huskins, K., Skelton, S. M., & Thorius, K. A. K. (2020). Allyship & accomplice: Two sides of the same coin. Equity dispatch. Midwest & Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP EAC).
Kendi, I. X. (2019a). How to be an anti-racist (1st ed.). One World.
Kendi, I. X. (2019b). How to be an anti-racist: A conversation with Ibram X. Kendi [Interview by Z. Warfield]. https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/10/25/racist-policy-antiracism-resist/
Love, B. (2019a). Ally vs. Co-Conspirator: What it means to be an abolitionist teacher. Lecture presented at We Want to Do More Than Survive. Retrieved 2019, from https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4844082/user-clip-ally-vs-conspirator-means-abolitionist-teacher
Love, B. L. (2019b). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon Press.
Love, B. L. (2020). Teachers, we cannot go back to the way things were. Education Week.
Maurantonio, N. (2017). “Reason to hope?”: The white savior myth and progress in “post-racial” America. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 94(4), 1130–1145.
McEldowney, M. (2018). What Charlottesville changed. Retrieved from https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/12/charlottesville-anniversary-supremacists-protests-dc-virginia-219353
Michael, A., & Conger, M. C. (2009). Becoming an anti-racist White ally: How a White affinity group can help. Perspectives on Urban Education, 6(1), 56–60.
Niesz, T., Korora, A. M., Walkuski, C. B., & Foot, R. E. (2018). Social movements and educational research: Toward a united field of scholarship. Teachers College Record, 120(030308), 1–41.
Patel, V. S. (2011). Moving toward an inclusive model of allyship for racial justice. The Vermont Connection, 32(1), 9.
Powell, J., & Kelly, A. (2017). Accomplices in the academy in the age of black lives matter. Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.31274/jctp-180810-73
Ramsey, F. (2014, November 22). 5 tips for being an ally. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=97&v=_dg86g-QlM0&feature=emb_logo
Sanborn, E. K., Jackson, R. G., Moore, T. S., Skelton, S. M., & Thorius, K. A. K. (2019). Developing authentic socially just spaces at the systemic level. Equity dispatch. Midwest & Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP EAC).
Snow, D. A., & Benford, R. D. (1999). Alternative types of cross-national diffusion in the social movement arena. See della Porta et al. 1999, pp. 23–49.
Washington, J., & Evans, N. J. (1991). Becoming an ally. In Beyond tolerance: Gays, lesbians, and bisexuals on campus (pp. 195–204).
Wing, A. (2020). Critical race feminism. In M. David & M. Amey (Eds.), The SAGE encyclopedia of higher education (Vol. 1, pp. 319–321). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529714395.n127
Wright, P. I. (2019). Cultural humility in the practice of applied behavior analysis. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12, 805–809. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-019-00343-8
Young, I. M. (2000). Five faces of oppression. In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, R. Castaneda, H. W. Hackman, M. L. Peters, & X. Zuniga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice: An anthology on racism, antisemitism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism (2nd ed., pp. 35–44). Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ekpe, L., Toutant, S. (2022). Moving Beyond Performative Allyship: A Conceptual Framework for Anti-racist Co-conspirators. In: Johnson, K.F., Sparkman-Key, N.M., Meca, A., Tarver, S.Z. (eds) Developing Anti-Racist Practices in the Helping Professions: Inclusive Theory, Pedagogy, and Application. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95451-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95451-2_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-95450-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-95451-2
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)