“The Good Ally” by Nova Reid
“Forget what you think you know” is a well-known adage, but sometimes, if you truly want to improve yourself, it's actually bad advice. Because as Nova Reid's The Good Ally made me understand, sometimes we can't afford to forget what we know. Instead, we need to hold it and focus on how much of it is wrong.
As a diversity consultant and anti-racism campaigner Nova Reid receives a lot of cries for help and is now inundated with messages asking ‘what next?’. This is a book for those wanting to become better allies against racism, for those who are hungry to expand their knowledge and understanding of systemic racism. Because for centuries we have been taught to uphold and maintain systems of oppression without question. To go along with that powerful current. Because it’s easier than swimming in the opposite direction.
The Good Ally delves into a hard subject to read about, whoever you are. Anti-Racism. This might be because you've been oppressed by racism your whole life, and it's traumatic to think about it head-on. Or it might be because it can be hard to accept exactly how much racism has impacted the world you grew up in.
But while the subject might be hard to read about, Nova Reid's writing is just the opposite. Her talent and experience as an anti-racism campaigner shine through, clearly explaining the topic in a way that is clear and easy to follow.
And this cannot have been an easy task for the author. Throughout the book, Reid explains how much her work has affected her. Both the personal trauma of facing her own feelings and the external trauma of the number of white people who've tried to erase her experiences to make themselves feel better.
But while I've said The Good Ally is easy to follow, I don't mean it's an easy read. Racism and anti-racism is a difficult topic to process. It took me a while to finish this book, simply because it took time to take in everything I was reading.
As a white male, it's all too easy for me to ignore how deeply racism is part of my world and how much I've benefitted from it. I will put my hand up as one of those people who, in the past, has argued that I'm one of the "good ones". I've looked at the world, and I've told myself that racism is no longer the problem it was a few decades ago. But that simply isn't the case. Because racism, especially anti-black racism, is a baked-in part of our world.
But here's the trick Reid manages to pull off. She presents her arguments in a way that directs us to accept the parts we play in institutional racism without making it feel like a personal attack. And if you do feel like it's a personal attack, she takes you through the process of why this is and how you can learn to see things differently.
At the end of the day, fellow white people, while it may not be your personal fault that racism exists, you still benefit from it and have been taught not to question it as it only affects other people. And being actively anti-racist, while hard, does not ultimately take anything away from you.
I learnt so much from reading The Good Ally, and I cannot recommend it enough to people. Especially fellow white people. There is so much about the everyday world of racism that we don't see because we live in a world designed around us and our own comfort. Nova Reid sets this out in a way that isn't angry or accusatory and simply has to be listened to if we want to be a proactive part of a better society.
