Moving beyond performative allyship

While the pervasiveness and systemic embeddedness of racism across most of our societies are self-evident to those who experience it as a consequence of their own identities and positionings, it is also patently obvious that solutions require a substantial proportion of the dominant population—those not personally disadvantaged by structural racism—to step up and take meaningful action toward change. Nursing's core values and fundamental disciplinary commitment to health for all, the rights and dignity of all persons, the equitable treatment of all in need should mean that all nurses by virtue of profession sign on to advocacy and action in this regard. Yet we know that there are far too many sad examples in which nurses themselves are the perpetrators of racist acts and/or are complicit in supporting inherently racist societal and healthcare practices. Although the central principle underlying antiracism is universal in our professional values statements and codes of ethics and built into our educational curricula and practice competencies, it has clearly not been taken up as strongly or as fully as it ought to have been. Far too many nurses remain stuck in denial and inaction, sustaining those systems of inequity rather than enacting their professional skill and authority toward doing their part to ensure fairness and justice for all. It has often been observed that “I don't see color” is a dominant normative belief held by white people – those who enjoy the privilege of not being racialized within their societies, and who consider that claim a convenient self-justification for retaining the status quo (Ansell, 2008). In the same manner that “All lives matter” has been used as a self-righteous dismissal of what the #BlackLivesMatter movement stands for, color-blindness serves to invalidate and render invisible the lived experience of everyone who does encounter prejudice related to their racial identity. It entrenches the claim that, because I am confident that I personally am not a racist, my behavior need not be called to account on this issue, and therefore I am under no obligation whatsoever to understand how my way of engaging in the world might actually be problematic to someone else. Because of this, color blindness has been depicted as the “reigning ideological buttress of a corresponding and distinct form of structural white supremacy” (Mueller, 2017, p. 220). Peeling back the layers of racism, you come to appreciate that only a minor fraction of what constitutes its impact as a powerful social determinant of health for persons who identify as Black, Indigenous, or persons of color in many societies actually takes the form of overtly racist attitudes or actions. In other words, it matters not whether you believe you have uncharitable thoughts or actions about persons of a different race from your own, but rather the central issue has to do with how much regard you are prepared to pay to the compromised lives of those who have experienced them. If you have been fortunate enough to go through life—for example, driving a car, entering a restaurant, applying for a job, seeking out health care—free of the fear that you may be unfairly judged or treated by virtue of race, then you have benefitted from a level of social privilege that is highly inequitably distributed. When you fail to appreciate that, or overtly deny that it matters, you become part of the deeply embedded and systemic problem. Getting beyond denial is a complex challenge because confronting it directly tends to trigger resistance and entrenchment. However, most of us do not recognize and act upon our problematic attitudes until something or someone brings them overtly to our attention. Increasingly, many organizations and institutions are supporting an array of strategic collective initiatives to shift that confrontation beyond individual blaming/shaming and toward shared recognition within the community that we all have a great deal to learn. Once that shell of denial begins to crack and there is an opening into recognizing one's own part in the social positioning that allows racism to persist, those in a position of privilege often seek a path forward—a stance that will allow them to demonstrate distance from the racism they have now come to see, and one that will identify them as constructive to the cause. And that quest is fraught with complexities. This special issue of Nursing Inquiry exposes us to a range of important perspectives on the notion of what antiracism entails in nursing, in health care, and in disciplinary scholarship and action. Some of the authors draw on their lived experience, and that of the populations they have studied and/or worked with, to deepen our insights as to how racism plays out in our practices, processes, and policies. Others offer a more theoretical challenge, inviting us into new ways of conceptualizing and engaging with the ideas that sustain racism in our societies and systems. And many challenge us into considering meaningful action so that we are exposed to options for moving beyond what has been termed performative allyship—positioning ourselves as partners in the cause without being prepared to commit to the very hard work that is required for societal change (Erskin & Bilimora, 2019). The term is used in a derogatory manner because the behaviors it references betray a self-righteousness that keeps us from the continual and ongoing self-learning that characterizes authentic and substantive allyship. Where we allow ourselves to stay stagnant in this partial awareness, we are smugly distancing ourselves from the problem (e.g., “Some of my best friends are….”) and continuing to resist the more painful and difficult prospect of unlearning and re-learning. Only when we acknowledge that this unlearning will require a lifetime, and realize that remaining open to the conversation is our only hope, can we push past a merely performative stance and toward finding our own best place within the active global collective process of undoing the profound harm of racism. And, as Ihedru-Anderson and Wahi so forcefully explain, an enormous collective effort will be required to dismantle the “recalcitrant structures that serve to maintain institutionalized racism” in nursing leadership, education, and practice globally (Ihedru-Anderson & Wahi, 2020, p. 17). We not only need to tackle our “White dominance” and inadequate antiracist competence (Bell, 2021) but to develop strategic responses to “the discourses of individualism, multiculturalism, color blindness, political correctness and denial” that have been deployed by our profession to “reinforce the belief in an essentially fair and just society while avoiding the need to acknowledge the persistence of racist discourses and ideologies” (Hilario et al., 2018, p. 1). The expression often attributed to Maya Angelou, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better”11 Angelou may have expressed the idea somewhat differently and in an interview context, but the wording of her message has become popularized in this form. See Winfrey, O. (1994, Nov 2). The Oprah Winfrey Show. https://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/the-powerful-lesson-maya-angelou-taught-oprah-video. has been popularized in the antiracism cause because it allows us a way to acknowledge (perhaps forgive, if not exonerate) ourselves for the benefits we have enjoyed because racism exists, and to mobilize that self-forgiveness into meaningful action. It is only through awareness that we can progress beyond what my colleague Jessica Kwanxwalaogwa Key has called “well-meaning but deeply harmful ways” toward the kind of authentic allyship that reflects solidarity and genuine commitment to the cause. “The world stands at a juncture of justice and Nursing must not be caught on the wrong side of history” (Moorley et al., 2020, p. 2452). I optimistically believe we have started this profoundly important conversation and begun to significantly “unsettle the silence” (Mapedzahama et al., 2012; Thorne, 2017). I invite you to read these papers individually and as a collection, stopping to pause and reflect along the way, to engage yourself not only as a scholar and professional but also as a person. What truths about you and your life do these authors expose? What new insight, or new level of insight, do these papers invite you to consider? And of course, where do you see these ideas guiding you in your own path toward being part of a profession that sees and aspires to justice and equity in this vision of health for all? And may we all find our way toward meaningful action.

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