Lessons on humility: white women’s racial Allyship in Academia

Abstract

In this chapter, I reflect on my experience as white, middle-class, European woman in a mixed-race relationship and mother of mixed-race children in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Against the backdrop of the complexities and messiness of the ongoing student protests calling for the decolonisation of academia, I share my continuous struggle to become a white ally in my personal and professional life. Drawing from feminist literature on allyship, I argue that white academics need to step back, start listening and accept that our knowledge and experience might not be what the moment calls for. What does it mean to give up privilege? How do we decentre ourselves? What are strategies we can apply to become more aware of our own blind spots? How do we fight Whiteness without losing ourselves? Through my own narratives, I will draw my own journey towards allowing myself to feel the pain that Whiteness keeps inflicting on people of colour—despite our best intentions—while at the same time feeling compassion for our continued failings, our white guilt and shame.