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In order to relieve the burden of celebrating allies for their contributions and accomplishments, a grassroots collective of allies is hosting an award ceremony to honor the tireless efforts of allies.
“We recognize it’s been a tough year for many allies, and we feel it’s important to take a moment and acknowledge the hard work allies have done,” said Spencer Smythe ‘16, one member of the collective. “We want to generate ally leadership and uplift the voices of allies.”
Smythe will be hosting the event and will be receiving an award for “Best Devil’s Advocate.” Other awards will be awarded for “Most Social Justice Filters Added to Profile Picture,” “Quickest to Point Out Gender A Spectrum, Not A Binary,” “Best Defense of Hillary Clinton,” “Best Defense of Bernie That Includes A Killer Mike Quote,” and “Most Tolerant,” among others.
Rachel Endicott ‘18, another member of the collective, discussed the importance of recognizing allies for their roles in social justice movements. “Organizations honor women for their roles in feminism all the time, but never men. The Third World Center gives awards to graduating seniors every year, but never to any white students. We see it all the time, movements totally forgetting to pay lip service to allies. Even Out Magazine has only put Barack Obama on their cover one time.”
“We heterosexual allies have a responsibility to remember that as the ‘A’ in ‘LGBTQIA,’ we are part of the community and deserve recognition,” said Endicott.
The event will also include an “In Memorium” section recognizing all of the allies who have stopped performing social justice work in the last year because it’s just so difficult.
Smythe claims allies have been and always will be present in the lives and political efforts of minorities. “Allies have been at the center of all movements since they began. Take the abolitionist movement; it began after President Lincoln, a white man, started the Civil War. Or the gay rights movement; it wasn’t until straight white men raided the Stonewall Inn that anyone began to care about LGBTQ issues.”
Reports of microaggressions against allies are on the rise. Endicott recalls a time when she received no credit for apologizing profusely after misgendering someone. “It hurt that he didn’t thank me for saying sorry after I accidentally used ‘he/him/his’ pronouns,” Endicott said, wiping away a white tear. “I mean, I knew I was doing the right thing to publicly draw attention to my mistake, but he could have been a little more grateful.”
The Brown Noser will be receiving an award given to the white people who make fun of white people the most.
