Five ways to be an ally to marginalized groups

Who lives at the end of your community, why? The stranded group exists in almost every place. For some reason they are deprived of people involved in mainstream economic, political, cultural and social activities.

Targeting or ignoring the group will eventually affect society as a whole. Mr. Leslie Lefkow, deputy director of Human Rights Watch Africa, says: "The issue of discrimination or minority alienation is a precedent for setting national discrimination, and the simplest form is to rest and rest for you comfortably."

Stress, anxiety, anger, or depression are normal by-products that are left behind. Mr. Lefkow said unresolved dissatisfaction could also lead to civil war and violence, which could damage the entire community.

"By combining this discrimination with the freedom to suppress the freedom of speech, if alienated groups can not peacefully express their dissatisfaction, civilians will protest and raise concerns What will happen to the space? "

The best way you can help end the rejection and isolation is to be a strong ally. This means educating yourself about the privileges of your team to better understand the views of the marginalized community members.

Start paying attention to what you said. Most people already know that avoiding generalization and stereotypes. However, even though we do not mean it, most of us still use languages ​​that lead to crime. Common words such as "gay", "crazy", "lamefoot" are actually exclusive, aggressive and derogatory.

I am willing to accept corrections. Even the most friendly people make mistakes and misunderstand others. If someone points out your mistake, please provide a sincere apology and prepare to learn from experience. It can earn your respect more than dealing through defense and anger

Do not tolerate intolerance. Are you hoping to face disdain and to hate speech online? how is it? What if this person is a friend or relative? The danger of silence is that discrimination and intolerance are the values ​​that you are willing to accept.

Look for missed sounds and opinions. Go online and find activists, bloggers, writers, artists and other voices from marginalized communities. Their personal stories and experiences will greatly inform you of your viewpoint. If you have the opportunity to spend time with someone in a stranded group, your most important task is to listen and learn them

Educate your own community. Your voice is most effective in your own group, because you best face its stereotypes and misunderstandings, you may have overcome some of them. As a viewer unavailable to other communities, you can also visit it specially. Please use it.

Please pay attention to the YALI network to learn how to participate in our next human rights course. Let's get the certificate and share the story of what you are doing to promote inclusiveness! Learn more and join yali.state.gov / 4all.

The best way you can help is to become a side. The allies point to people outside the group left behind, but they would like to help sympathize with them and create change. Allies may have privileges that are not available to people within the group. Remember: having privilege does not make you a bad person It just means that you must educate yourself about what this privilege brings to you. You can start by learning more about being on the side of privileged people.

If it is easy to become a real friend, people calling themselves "allies" are correct for those left behind by ally ... but the situation is not even so. Believe me, I am a white male, I am trying to become an ally of people who are systematically suppressed because the skin is darker than me ... I emphasize "I am trying". Sometimes I do a good job and the leftover group is called a friend. At other times, it may be more frequent than I thought, I am just the most annoying, martyr, or a paternalist ... that is because I am not racist against white people Is there even that? This is a miracle, everyone has enough patience and my confusion, I am neither slapped nor ridiculed ... And a miracle, I will make people of every color my white privilege It means that it is unlikely that I will face me in non-civil ways, subject to reputation and security risks.