Allyship: How to

Like the metaphor of the dandelion, McWhorter argues for allyship.  In striving towards a more equitable society, McWhorter offers two steps:

1.   "The first step toward dismantling biopolitical - that is, racist- networks of power, therefore, is to refuse to do their work for them, to refuse to do the work of self (and other) policing in the name of the normal" (McWorter 326).

This step is critical theory at its core. It looks critically at the systems and structures oppressing and othering individuals who are subjected to symbolic violence. 

McWhorter continues with the second step:

2.  "The second thing I know is that an insurrection of our subjugated knowledges is only possible if we stop compartmentalizing oppression on the basis of sociological identity" (McWhorter, 2009, p. 327).

As structures are challenged, allyship must offer a space for subjugated voices to be heard. Platforming and uplifting these voices circles back to McWhorter's conundrum they had at the outset of their text. McWhorter, instead of speaking for people, offers a different solution:

"I spent the next eight years looking for ways to understand the violence and oppression so apparent in the world around me, listening to voices almost lost in an archive most Americans don't want to know exists and to voices usually discredited in our communities because they issue from the bodies of people our culture's dominant values tell us they are damaged or sick or otherwise inferior." (McWhorter, 2009, p. 328).