Turning good intentions into good actions
Category: Uncategorized
Dear Ally (Skills Teacher), I am a socially awkward, queer fat white woman working at a government agency in Canada. I would like some advice about what to do as a bystander when my white colleagues of any gender are engaging in subtle (or not so subtle) racist behaviour against my women of color colleagues. … Continue reading #17: How do I stop being “nice” and start standing up to racism at work?
We've almost worked our way through the backlog of questions for Dear Ally Skills Teacher! We are now switching to a "when we feel like it" posting schedule. In the meantime, here is another ally skills resource for you: "Microallyship: micro servicing your team's culture" by Neha Batra (@nerdneha). Neha shared the slides for a … Continue reading Learn about microallyship
Dear Ally (Skills Teacher), I'm a white man in a leadership position at a tech company. My team is unusually diverse and we talk about diversity fairly often. A few months back one of the men on my team used the phrase 'girls' when describing young women (in their early twenties) who work as professional … Continue reading #16: How do I correct sexist language without scaring my report?
This week's question is an amalgam of several different questions: Dear Ally (Skills Teacher), Can you tell me once and for all what the proper term is to use when talking about people who have disabilities? I see "people with disabilities," "disabled people," and "differently abled" most often. Whatever I pick, half the time someone … Continue reading #15: What term should I use when talking about people who have disabilities?
Dear Ally (Skills Teacher), I am a cis-gender, heterosexual, white, male, working in academia (pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at a US University) so I am very aware of my privilege. I'm a huge advocate for ally work as I myself struggled immensely in the early phase of my doctoral studies and through that … Continue reading #14: How do I talk to people who are against allyship as a concept?
Dear Ally (Skills Teacher), I am a white, university-educated woman and I recently started a new job based in Europe. The issue is my boss, who is a rude, sexist, racist white man. He is much older than me and is viewed in our industry as a merely strong-headed, kinda grumpy guy who achieved a … Continue reading #13: Can I do anything about my rude, sexist, racist boss?
Dear Ally (Skills Teacher), I'm a woman with no disabilities living in a mid-sized city. Today while I was leaving the library, a woman using a wheelchair was entering. Someone else had pressed the automatic door opener several seconds ago, but the door was starting to close as she was going through. I held the … Continue reading #12: When should I hold the door for someone using a wheelchair?
