Ziada and Mary Ann talk with Holiday Phillips about her article that recently went viral ‘Performative Allyship Is Deadly (Here’s What to Do Instead)‘. She tells us about what made her write it, the experience of it going viral and some of her other thoughts about racial justice and anti-racist practice in this time.

Find the article at: https://forge.medium.com/performative-allyship-is-deadly-c900645d9f1f

And Holiday on
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holidayphillips/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/holidayphillips
Her website: https://www.holidayphillips.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFIndcHQuGPPv9KLJC2kYQg?view_as=subscriber

Holiday is a sociologist, coach, writer and speaker on the topics of philosophy, spirituality, culture and personal transformation. She is also co-founder of Kula, a consultancy that helps organisations develop conscious leadership and diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces. All of her work is in service of this question:

“What will it take to build a wiser, kinder world?”

To that end, she is interested in exploring a wide range of topics that touch on soul and society – personal healing, non-violent communication, integral solutions to racial inequality, new economic models, and the practical application of ancient wisdom to name a few!

Some quotes from Holiday in this episode:

‘I’m really, really passionate about in anti-racism is not recreating the same systems of violence that define racism, which are morality versus immorality, good versus bad, better versus worse.’

‘I think one of the things that non-black people can do to be allies is to be able to hold space for that rage to be processed, without taking it personally, without getting defensive. Just understanding that this is something that needs to happen.’

‘For the first time, there are so many ears willing to listen and because that space is being cleared, there will be an explosion of rage and rage rooted in grief.’

‘And these societal issues are rooted in people having power, needing to have power over someone else, judging people, denigrating people. So we don’t want to bring those methods into the new world that we’re trying to create’.