Bios for all the presenters on the webcast "You've Got a Friend in me: Effective Allyship" and a list of resources can be found here.
In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police and nationwide protests, a panel of legal professionals gathered June 12 for a frank discussion about ways individuals and communities can be effective allies in the fight against racism.
Dara Govan, an assistant U.S. Attorney and former president of the Garden State Bar Association, moderated the panel, which included Lloyd Freeman, partner and chief diversity officer at Archer, and former president of the Garden State Bar Association; NaSheena Porter, special deputy attorney general/acting assistant prosecutor, Union County, and a member of the Young Lawyers Division executive board; Thomas H. Prol, former president of the NJSBA and an attorney with Sills Cummis & Gross, Newark; and Elissa Zylbershlag, director of conflict resolution and anti-bias initiatives, New Jersey State Bar Foundation.
The program was organized the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) Diversity Committee with the Garden State Bar Association, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, the NJSBA LGBT Rights Section, Minorities in the Profession Section and the Young Lawyers Division.
Floyd’s murder – captured on video as he gasped for breath and called out for his mother while a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and other officers looked on— was not an isolated event, the panel noted. There have been multiple killings of Black people at the hands of police. Yet this moment felt different, the panel said.
“We’ve been fighting. We’ve been protesting. We’ve been in the streets. We’ve done all these things,” Porter said. “This time is when it’s really important for allies — that’s people who are not part of the marginalized groups who are helping to aid the marginalized groups and move forward – to speak out. Because if it’s only us advocating for ourselves, it’s only going to go so far in the face of hate or in the face of indifference.”
Prol said his work as an LGBT rights activist taught him to build bridges with other disenfranchised communities. There is a cross-section of experience in the fight for civil rights, justice and equality, he said.
“The same people who hate me, hate other people. If we can join forces and allies, we can fight that common battle together and we are a greater force for good than their force for evil,” he said.
“I think every white person, a person who is not a person of color, is morally responsible to take up this fight, because it’s unfair to shift this burden over to people of color to advocate for themselves,” he said.
Freeman said someone who wants to be an ally needs to recognize racism exists, denounce the actions of racists and commit to a solution.
“We need someone who is going to actively get in the trenches with us,” he said. “Six months from now when George Floyd’s funeral is no longer being broadcast on CNN, are you still an ally, are you still committed to the solution?”
Zylbershlag said that many experts see the notion of allyship as just a first step in a continuum. Some of those first steps may include learning the language, understanding the plight, watching movies and documentaries about systemic racism. “We show we care. Maybe we show up at a rally or at a vigil. We’re listening,” she said.
But necessary next steps involve becoming “accomplices,” who are allies who “actually step up and are willing to take a risk to use their privilege to actively oppose racism or any ‘ism,’” she said. Even further along the continuum is the idea of a “co-conspirator,” or someone who “decides to go into the risk pro-actively because they helped create the plan in the first place,” she said.
The terminology can feel negative because it’s normally associated with criminal activities, Zylbershlag said.
“Perhaps the reason we are using these terms to confront us with the idea that what is legal or illegal isn’t what is always right or wrong,” she said. “In our country’s history, a Black person drinking out of a whites-only water fountain would have been considered illegal. A landlord refusing to rent to a Black family would have been within his legal rights,” she said.
Freeman drew a parallel to what civil rights activist and U.S. Rep. John Lewis said, “You’ve got to get into some good trouble with me.”
Porter added that it is important for an ally “to do work even when there’s no Black people around,” for instance, when a friend, a co-worker or supervisor speaks up.
Govan said there’s a role for everyone. “I would encourage people to get in where you fit in. Do what is comfortable and the more comfortable you get, and the more conscious you get that you are standing on the side of right, the more you’ll move on that continuum.”
“The fact that we’re having a conversation about allies for Black people to be treated as human beings is perhaps the saddest thing about this whole thing,” Govan said.
“All we’re asking is, please, see me as a human being,” she said.
Bios for all the presenters on the webcast "You've Got a Friend in me: Effective Allyship" and a list of resources can be found here. Additional resources mentioned during the broadcast include:
We Wear the Mask. A poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
White Fragility: Why it's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo