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On the Ally-way

An app for self-education on transformative intersectional justice.

By Jemilla Mills-SmithPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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On the Ally-way
Photo by LOGAN WEAVER on Unsplash

I like to do many things. I love reading, writing, watching Marvel movies, and could tear up the dance floor given the opportunity. But, in terms of passion, nothing holds my heart like transformative intersectional justice.

I distinctly remember when I started my justice phase — it was senior year of high school and Mike Brown was fatally shot in Ferguson. It wasn’t until college, however, that I dove in headfirst. I was MAD — at the world, at my friends for not being “woke” enough, at myself for not being “woke” enough in my younger years. It isn’t until very recently that my approach to calling for justice has changed and matured with me.

I have a unique perspective as a Canadian black woman with Jamaican heritage. I can clearly see the pain the black community experiences — but being a black woman, I don’t get to choose which short end of the stick I experience. It fills me with rage and a unique brand of loneliness that only black women like me can understand. Having to explain to my white female and black male peers that they have privilege is often a losing battle. And an exhausting one too. Despite the facts and the evidence, many people are willing to hold on to their perception of being a good person rather than accept that they benefit from privilege.

Alternatively, I can undoubtedly recognize the pain that the Canadian Indigenous community has suffered, and have another type of rage that flows within me. I can clearly see how rampant the oppression is, and am astounded at how others can’t, or won’t see it for themselves. It’s willful ignorance that allows them to live from a place of privilege; but revealing that would, once again, be a losing battle.

Being raised in the church, I was taught to see the world one way — but as I’ve grown, and got to know the people I was told to avoid, I see that not everything is black and white.

And neither is allyship. There’s performative allyship, true allyship, and then a grey area where many of us do not know what to say and how to say it. Even as I experience many forms of systemic injustice, I have my own privilege that helps me to understand that being there for those that have been oppressed can mean different things. But it all starts with education.

That’s what I try to do on my social media — as a person who has become unabashedly vocal about social injustice, I have no qualms about reposting, tweeting, sharing and proclaiming from the mountaintops that we need to do better. But you wouldn’t go to your first boxing class expecting to be an expert — it takes time and commitment to learn what to do and how to do it. It takes self-education.

Many things don’t directly affect our lives, but it will still affect the world. It will change our societies, economies, political structures and environment with ripple-like consequences. This can all be averted, but it all starts with knowing where we’ve been so we can know the right direction to go. It’s not easy to know where to start, but with a reliable source to go for transformative justice education, many of us would be headed for social maturity.

My membership service would be an iOS, Android, and desktop app to go to for education on transformative justice. With a monthly fee, people can access books, videos, podcasts, documentaries and movies to educate themselves at the beginner, immediate, and advanced levels. After completing a resource, a subscriber has to comment with what they learned at the end to receive a point. Signing a petition, donating to a cause, or participating in an in-person or virtual protest — with a comment as to why — will result in two points. When you accumulate a certain number of points, you get a discount on your next monthly subscription.

A subscriber won’t know how many points they’ve gotten, and neither will any other subscribers. With continual commitment to using the app’s resources, the hope is that subscribers will stay for continual self-education. I’d add new resources to the app every month, and there would be a free version; except there would be ads from charities and community organizations to fund the app and allow for subscribers to access all resources without the paid membership.

The point system’s invisibility would hopefully remove any chances of performative allyship. The point is to continue to self-educate, reflect on what you’ve learned, and participate in local acts of transformative justice.

In a perfect world, subscribers wouldn’t continue to use the resources to get more points. In a perfect world, subscribers of all ages, races and orientations would use the app and learn more and more every day. Injustice is still happening, so education is always available. With education, action follows — which will hopefully lead to transformative intersectional justice.

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About the Creator

Jemilla Mills-Smith

I’m a fiction writer that published her first YA novel “Bastet’s Legacy” last year. I want to commit my life to writing stories for everyone to relate to.

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