Ally or comrade: What is your role? // by Kristin Vierra

   

    I think we can all agree that as scholars studying psychology and branches of feminism, it is important that we do our part to resist structural oppression. Along my journey to build consciousness, I became familiar with the concept of allyship. I was intrigued, so I put in the work to learn more. I learned that an ally is characterized as a person that holds some form of privilege and wants to do something about oppression. For example, a person who identifies as male, labels oneself a feminist, and supports the push for gender equality. To be considered an ally, one is often encouraged to educate themselves on the “do’s and don’ts” of allyship. In fact, several online resources are available to guide individuals through the proper methods of allyship. These recourses educate allies on strategies such as appropriate language choices, and how to navigate settings of privilege or oppression. It seemed that allyship was right for me! However, I was recently encouraged to consider replacing my ally label with comrade. I wondered, why the push to step away from the ally label?

    While I’m not saying that allyship is a negative label or something we should completely shy away from, I do think it is important to critically analyze the requirements of allyship. As mentioned above, to be an ally, one is required to educate themselves (awesome). However, too much self-educating could be isolating. This is because you are required to consume information, mostly from online guides, without any form of group discussion or support. This could be troublesome considering intergroup dialogues provide a space to promote conflict resolution, highlight commonalities between opposing sides, and motivate individuals to work together to create social change. Overall, it is important to educate oneself, but it is also important to spend time working together to cultivate solidarity and comradeship. Comrades are devoted to working together on the same side of a movement for equality, and justice. 

    As a final note, I want to recognize that this blog post is a brief overview of the difference between an ally and a comrade. I encourage my readers to learn more about comradeship.

By Kristin Vierra

Role of Women in Elections - "Celebrating Kamala Harris" by Kaylla A. Jackson

There is no question that 2020 has been a long decade. That is what this year has felt like. November is almost over and the election is finally over. People have been annoyed by the constant reminders to vote. They were all over Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Some of us unlucky people even got phone calls and text messages from strangers asking if we are planning to vote and if a candidate could count on our vote. The constant reminders could be a nuisance, but when you consider the journey to get to this point, voting and reminders to vote are a little less annoying. 

With everything that is happening, so much is getting lost and forgotten. The evolution of the roles of women in elections can become diminished. We all witnessed the first African-American and Asian-American woman to be elected vice president.  Whether you agree with her politics and history as a prosecutor or not, Kamala Harris’ accomplishment is a step in the right direction for women, especially women of color. 

For so long, the role of women in politics was to look pretty, smile, and let the men lead. There was a time when women could not vote in elections or voice their opinions. They could not ask questions and demand accountability from politicians. The first election was in 1778. A little over a century later, Victoria Woodhull became the first female presidential candidate. In 1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress. In 1920 women were finally given the right to vote. In 1968, Shirley Chisolm became the first African-American woman elected to the United States Congress. Then, in 1972 she became the first major-party candidate for a presidential nomination. Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981. In 2016, Hilary Clinton became the woman to run for President of the United States after nomination by a major party.  Since then, so many women have been elected to political office and have run campaigns. Today, 127 women hold seats in the United States Congress, a feat that never would have been possible without the work of the women who came before them. 

We have come so far and we still have so far to go. It is sad, but beautiful that in 2020, concepts like “the first woman” are still necessary. It feels like as a society we should be past that sometimes. Women are a force for change and we more than deserve to be respected and valued in all the spaces that we occupy. So we should celebrate when “firsts” happen because it means that the next woman might accomplish that much more, and we should be mindful that first only means there are more to come. 

Women are powerful and we are going to continue to occupy spaces and accomplish great things. So, the next time you find yourself annoyed about a reminder to vote, remind yourself that in doing so, you are honoring the women who worked to make that possible. 

By Kaylla A. Jackson

References

Abrams, Z. (2020, March 10). Celebrating a win for equality— And fighting for more. http://www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/03/win-equality

Koren, M. (2019, July 11). Why Men Thought Women Weren't Made to Vote. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/womens-suffrage-nineteenth-amendment-pseudoscience/593710/. 

Image Citation:

Kamala Harris. By Benjamin Wallace-Wells. 29 Jan. 2019. Web. 2020.