How to Be a Better Ally
Here’s a gentle reminder: Being an ally is a journey. A never-ending, ever-growing, and active journey.
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You can’t “pause” your allyship efforts. You can’t just forget about your intentions or purpose. You just can’t put it aside until you have more time or more energy.
You know, I’m often asked, “Dani, how can I be a better ally to X community” and I always struggle with the answer. Because this is not a journey, I can walk for you.
I can’t design a training session or learning curriculum that will help you become a better ally but I can share a few tips on what you should know before you get going:
- As an ally, you will intentionally take on the struggle as your own, BUT you do so by elevating the voices, lives, and causes of those that have been systematically excluded, not your own.
- Allyship is supposed to be uncomfortable for you. You will be leveraging your own privileges to speak up, stand up, and challenge others EVERY DAY. You will be embedding allyship in every single thing you do.
- If you don’t like being uncomfortable, maybe this is not a journey you should embark on.
- Sure, Allyship is also about learning and unlearning, but that journey is yours and yours alone. It’s not the community’s responsibility to educate you.
- Understand that the conversation is not about you (ever). Decenter yourself. Check yourself and check your language, your actions, and your past.
- Allyship is active, intentional, ever-growing, continuous, purposeful, committed, and un-pausable. Allyship is proactive, willful, and challenging. You just cannot turn your allyship on and off.
- Own your mistakes. Learn to apologize meaningfully and to be better. Everyday.
And more importantly, you do not call yourself an Ally.
This is not about you.
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👋🏻 … and if you got here and you’re wondering who I am (a very valid question!). Hi, I’m Dani Herrera; it’s great to meet you!
💜 I’m an ED&I Professional and Speaker with over 15+ years of global experience in all things Talent Operations, Recruitment, Leadership, and Management. I specialize in analyzing and deconstructing processes to help organizations build Inclusive and Equitable Cultures.
🏆 I’ve been named one of Mogul’s Top 100 DEI Leaders in 2021 & 2022, one of NYC Latinos 40 Under 40, and Mentor of The Year in 2022. I’ve also been featured by Forbes, Business Insider, and Refinery 29 (among many others!) and have spoken at countless national and international events and conferences.
You can learn more about me, my work, and my accomplishments here.
