What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition by Emma Dabiri- the title itself is meant to provoke and maybe even offend. When I saw it on a bookshelf, I immediately stopped and read the back, thinking this is a must-read. And it was. At its core, Dabiri refers to how white people can be part of the struggle for racial justice. This book is a conversation with people from the Global South with recommendations of how we can work with white folks. It is a manifesto for change - a must-read for those organising against racism. It is a kind of urgent call for ‘What is to be done’.
The book starts with the context of colonialism with reference to Europe’s enslavement and colonial settlement. Dabiri succinctly summarises the 300-plus years of colonialism, the racialisation process, and discusses how this history has laid the foundations for the making of whiteness and the hierarchy of white superiority. Racialised inequalities and diverse identities are central to her analysis.
Identity matters, says Dabiri. Being of Irish and Nigerian descent, her narrative tells of her early years in the US, with her latter years mostly in Ireland with an Irish mother. Being of mixed heritage, Dabiri was otherised; her difference was experienced against the whiteness that she was surrounded by. She recalls how whiteness was never questioned and associated with white saviour and superiority, whilst simultaneously blackness/the others are (supposedly) in need to be saved. Blackness she explains, was depicted as less able, less beautiful and less intelligent.
However, not all whites are superior in position. White working-class inequality for example, is experienced, but differently to other marginalised groups. She insists that there still remains no equivalence between black inferiority and white superiority. She explains that prejudice against whiteness is powerless, racism on the other hand, comes with power. When white people are racist, they are using their power of white privilege and superiority against black people and minorities.
This understanding of how whiteness works is central to building a movement for change. Recent political organisations, says Dabiri, were based within identity politics, where the collectivists worked within their own groups, and as Dabiri says here:
“Identity politics has become a way to manage self-difference that colludes with dominant forms of liberal multiculturalism.” (p141)
She affirms this has also prevented alliances because we existed within our fixed borders of difference. This, argues Dabiri, was the problem, and this is where coalition politics needs to rethink its strategies.
To give clarity on this matter, Dabiri makes the distinction between allyship and coalition. She tells us that being an ally simply means to be a good person, a reasonable person, a benevolent person, who may act out of guilt and kindness. This, she argues, becomes performative.
A coalition movement on the other hand brings progressive organisations together based on mutuality and a common good, whilst also attending to the specificities of racism. This is not about having good white people on board with the struggle but about having white people who challenge racist actions and racist systems. It is about acting out and shouting out - not just simply disapproving…this is what makes a difference in the struggle for change.
This reminds me of the famous words by Angela Davis, who said: “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist; we must be anti-racist…”
Dabiri affirms that we learn from the past but must move on and make a better future for all of us. To this end, she says, “we know what we don't want, but we find it much harder to articulate what we do want, let alone how to achieve it.” (p.8).
Making reference to the Black Lives Matter movement and the international protests against the killing of George Floyd, Dabiri says, “that there’s a great thirst for change”, and applauds the angry activists taking to the streets. This movement she comments, did not grow, instead it sadly fizzled out. This, she says, is because people looked towards social media platforms, instead of building solidarity on the ground. This online activism she argues, had no substance, and therefore became a representational tool, and by its very nature a performative act, and therefore a substitute for action.
What can we learn from this to build a solidarity movement?
In admiration of the Black Panthers, under Fred Hampton, Dabiri looks for inspiration for today. The Black Panthers, she reminds us, created a rainbow coalition with the Puerto Rican Young Lords, and the working-class Southern whites of the Young Patriots. This coalition organised around the idea that in the best common interest, black people, minoritised people and disenfranchised whites should organise collectively against racism, police brutality and the inequalities perpetuated by capitalism. Dabiri reminds us that the shift from:
“Black Nationalism to intercommunism was about seeking to unite and empower disenfranchised groups. The Black Panthers became more inclusive in its radical vision. With a new focus on injustices, they began to see more parallels between the struggles of all exploited and oppressed people across the lines of race and nation.” (p.17)
Drawing from this experience, Dabiri’s concluding points affirm that in order to build an anti-racist coalition movement, across racial difference, we need to be more mainstream, and “reframe whiteness in order to disassemble it”. This requires an understanding not about the intersectionality of identities but an understanding of the intersectionality of issues, which links our struggles together in the work of coalition building. Her hope in this text is that we do this by reframing conversations around racial justice, anti-racism and allyship.
I say, read this book if you are serious about building an alternative, progressive anti-racist movement based on coalition politics between white folks and ourselves from the Global South, as, so succinctly said here, in this final point in her book:
“There are many others already well travelled; come, let us find them, our fellow fugitives, redouble their efforts, and together dance under new suns glorious and unknown.” (p.150)
*Emma Dabiri's book What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition was published on April 1, 2021 by Penguin Books in the UK. The book cover was designed by Jahnavi Inniss.