I Don’t Have to Be Part of Everything

Trying to be an ally has been a learning experience. I started out thinking I could do no wrong as long as I cared about whatever community I wanted to support. I put so much faith in my ability to empathize that I assumed it gave me license to defend a cause in any way, and I didn’t think twice about speaking over other people or acknowledging that I can never truly understand someone else’s experience just because I watched a moving documentary about it. As long as I genuinely cared, I reasoned, how could I go wrong?

I’m still learning, but I now realize it’s not that simple.

One lesson I’ve learned only recently is that I don’t have to be part of everything in a community I want to support.

I repeatedly see this issue come up whenever a marginalized group tries to have a space or a conversation of their own. One of the most recent examples was the Twitter campaign #BlackOutDay, where Black people shared pictures and stories about themselves to celebrate Black beauty. The campaign was so popular that it’ll now become a tradition for the first Friday of every month, with the next one happening April 3rd. But on the first day of it, many white people called the whole thing racist and complained that a “White Out Day” would’ve been shut down instantly.

First Blog Post: What’s This All About?

Hello! Thanks for checking out my blog!

I’ve been wanting to jump on the blog bandwagon for months, because writing has always been a natural form of expression for me. Pretty recently, I’ve realized that I have a lot of stuff I want to talk about, and that’s when I got the idea to start this thing.

So, what exactly is this all about?

Basically, I want this to be a space where I can share my thoughts and hear what others think. I would love this to become a respectful community open to dialogue and discussion – and where, hopefully, we can learn from each other’s perspectives. A huge focus of my life right now is trying to be the best ally I can to causes that I care deeply about, and I want to use this blog to not only participate in the online community of advocacy, but also to continue learning about what being a good ally means by engaging with other people.