15 Ways to be an Ally/Friend and Anti-Prejudice

What you can do to ensure you are rejecting and disrupting the marginalization, forms of oppression, and discrimination of others and are indeed endorsing social justice and upholding respect, fairness, and inclusivity as you value the human dignity in us all.

1. Acknowledge change begins with us. We must start with being aware of who we are and be committed to changing what is necessary within ourselves before positioning ourselves to go out to change the world around us.

2. Be aware of your perceptions. When we believe something to be true, it becomes our reality and our actions reflect that belief. Therefore, we must understand what factors have been shaping our views of social identities influencing the way we treat ourselves and others. When you understand how family, peers, education, religion, politics, environment, media and your experiences are developing your beliefs you are able to allow yourself to unlearn the conditioning that devalues people so you may see the human dignity in us all.

3. Do not be Color Blind. See everyone. See the diversity because there is nothing wrong with what people are. You can love yourself while still appreciating and respecting people different from you.

4. Avoid generalizing. Your perceived favorable or unfavorable traits and behaviors of one or some, is not all, therefore get to know people for who they are, not who you expect them to be.

5. Be aware of how you speak with and treat people. Recognize if you are expressing offensive derogatory comments or actions that degrade an individual or group. Notice if your intentional or unintentional words and actions are stereotypical, prejudicial or disparaging so you may consciously choose language and actions that are humanizing, respectful and uplifting.

6. Raise your children around diversity. Live in a community where you’re coexisting with diverse cultures. Welcome people different from you in your lives. Travel outside of your neighborhood, community, state, and country. If your children are raised getting to know people who speak different from them, look different from them, and think different from them then they won't fear differences. They will have an opportunity to appreciate differences and see beauty in it.

7. See beyond your perceived importance. Don’t undermine and dismiss the skills and accomplishments of individuals or groups due to their social identity. Be educated on the abilities people from all walks of life encompass, their successes achieved, and contributions provided. Acknowledging and appreciating others greatness doesn’t have to lessen your value.

8. Be humble. People who don’t act like you, think like you or have the same lifestyle as you, doesn’t make them flawed, wrong or insignificant. All of us may have more room to grow to be more understanding, compassionate and be contributing members of society in varying levels to make the world a better place, but no one is the embodiment of the human race.

9. Acknowledge that all people are human beings. Lessons teach and experiences reinforce superiority among certain groups, but when you strip away conditioned beliefs and labels what’s left are human beings. And each being has immeasurable value.

10. Don’t negate another’s oppressive experience. Realize that just because you don’t experience or see events taking place doesn’t mean they aren’t happening. Remember that your truth stems from your teachings and life-based experiences, therefore your reality is not universal. Put your ego, assumptions, and views aside to genuinely reflect on another’s ill-treatment to avoid both minimizing their experience or questioning the validity of their feelings.

11. Do not justify acts of discrimination. When validating the actions of the attacker you’re demeaning the life of the one attacked.

12. Have empathy. Do not make decisions for an individual or group that they should not be offended when they or groups they identify with have been disrespected, dehumanized or discriminated against. Even if you have similar experiences and especially if you haven’t, your opinion is offensive and unwarranted when sharing how you would personally respond, react, or feel if in the same situation. Instead of demeaning and invalidating their emotions and reactions choose empathy.

13. Speak up and take a stand. In facing the system of oppression and intolerant hateful expression of any kind, don’t be silent, neutral, or apathetic. If you want to be a true friend or ally there’s no room for complicity. If you do nothing to represent being a part of the solution, then that results in you standing by as you watch the downfall of others. Speak up and stand up against the devaluation, dehumanization and discrimination of others.

14. Support safety, freedom, equity and inclusion. If you vote for representatives that practice and condone for specific groups to be marginalized for progress, how do you decide who needs to be confined to a life of condemnation for your advancement, safety, freedom and serenity? Realize that others do not have to fall for you to rise. Elect leaders that enact and enforce policies for a fair and just system.

15. Value each other's lives.

We as a society are capable of empowering ourselves to be fair and inclusive as we intentionally practice and promote open-mindedness to value all facets of identities and voices. If you are looking for guidance on how to be nondiscriminatory and support positive social changes for the long-term, participate in training that effectively provides sustainable transformation. Attend workshops that dive into exploring the factors that shape our perceptions being that they are the root sources to our underlying beliefs, unconscious biases and generalized assumptions driving us to treat ourselves and others the way we do.

For example, equity and inclusion wouldn’t be a challenge or would perhaps be less of an issue if schools taught a multiperspective curriculum instead of indoctrinating students with a Eurocentric male-based curriculum. If we learned how to value all identities while our young minds were developing, and that unbiased education continued through college, we wouldn’t have such a hard time seeing each other from one human being to another and treat one another accordingly.

The media also has the power to shape our views and opinions, and unfortunately, it often reinforces negative stereotypes and degrades certain groups. When there’s a lack of representation or an over-exaggeration of certain groups, this can perpetuate offensive and inaccurate views. However, if the media were to focus on revealing the impartial complexities of our individual and collective attributes, both positive and negative, we could better understand and appreciate each other's humanity.

For real lifelong change to take place we need to realize the impact education, religion, politics, the media, our family, peers, culture, environment (home, neighborhood, community), and experiences have on shaping our views influencing the way we interact and respond to one another.

Our interactive programs offer these revelations in addition to how to rewire our minds to dismantle destructive conditioning to un-accept damaging, dehumanizing, and devaluing beliefs. Our hands-on exercises, experiential activities, and thought-provoking group discussion allows us to consciously minimize and cease mistreatment of people due to their race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity and expression, sexuality, creed, religion, politics, socioeconomic background, physical and cognitive abilities, age, and appearance.

If you want to ensure you are not perpetuating inequities and are advocating for cultivating peace and love in this diverse world, book a customized workshop that provides valuable and viable tools inspiring you to make a positive impact in your internal environment and your community reaching out into the world.