Coping as a White Ally

As a white ally involved in anti-racism activism, the past few weeks have likely been busy for you. Perhaps you have attended marches, signed petitions, or drastically increased your social media consumption & participation in an effort to work on decreasing your own biases, challenging others, and calling for change. This is important, valuable work, and it is also difficult and draining. Here are some strategies to consider as you balance your own emotional and mental well-being while continuing to stay active on behalf of the BiPOC community.

Continue your physical self-care. Be sure to eat, sleep, and get in some physical movement each day. Check out our “Physical Wellness as an Emotional Skill” post for more details.
Be willing to set the phone down for a short period of time. Be sure to recognize the privilege you have in walking away, and be sure that you return to advocacy after you have had some rest. It is important to recognize that you cannot be effective if you have no energy to commit to the cause.
Reach out to other white allies to check-in on you and have conversations with them. You are not in this fight alone, and having someone to discuss your feelings with can be immensely helpful.
Seek out hopeful content in addition to the content you are consuming that identifies problems. Maintaining a sense of hope will help to empower you because it will remind you that you are fighting for a reason. Buying into the “things will never change” narrative is an easy way to feel burnt out and give up.
Take some time to identify your emotions and feelings throughout the day. This could be a brief check-in at the start/end of your day, journaling about your feelings, keeping a mood log, etc. Being able to recognize early signs of debilitating emotions and burnout can help you to take care of it immediately, rather than waiting until they feel out of control.
Have a list of activities on hand that you know make you feel good. For example, taking a shower/bath, lighting a candle, doing a meditation, going for a walk, coloring, drawing, exercising, etc. Having the list on-hand will make it easier to decide on how to cope when you start to feel overwhelmed.
Follow accounts on social media that you find encouraging and inspiring, but that are still committed to the movement.

We’d love to hear what other strategies are helping you cope as a white ally. Overall, we want to ensure that you are taking care of yourself in a way that ensures you can continue to fight and advocate on behalf of BiPOC. Make sure your coping does not replace your advocacy – keep working towards justice. Together we can make a difference.