In the field of social justice studies, the idea of being an ally to another person or group of people has become a key concept in examining issues of oppression and privilege. When people form an alliance to speak out against prejudice and discrimination, people who are the target of that prejudice are not the only ones who benefit. They may be the ones who most directly benefit from efforts to combat prejudice, but all of us benefit. 

Allyship is about kinship. As Rev. Gregory Boyle SJ says "We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless. At the edges, we join the easily despised and the readily left out. We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop. We situate ourselves right next to the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.”

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Books

  • Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools, 2nd Edition (2015) Glenn Singleton
  • Race Amity: A Primer on America’s Other Tradition, Natl Center for Race Amity
  • White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism, Paula Rothenberg
  • Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice, Eric Mason
  • Racial Justice and the Catholic Church, Rev. Bryan Massingale 
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo
  • Privilege: Power and Difference, Allan Johnson
  • Privilege: A Reader, Michael Kimmel & Abby Ferber
  • Raising Race Questions, Ali Michael
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander
  • Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson
  • America’s Original Sin : America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, Jim Wallis
  • Slavery By Another Name, Douglas Blackmon
  • When Affirmative Action Was White, Ira Katznelson
  • So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo
  • The Color of Law: The Forgotten Story of How Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein
  • Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Ibram X. Kendi
  • How to be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi
  • White Awake: An Honest Look at What it Means to be White, Daniel Hill
  • Empire of Cotton: A Global History, Sven Beckert
  • Slavery’s Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development, Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman
  • The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, Calvin Schermerhorn
  • The History of White People, Nell Irvin Painter

Articles