{"id":70543,"date":"2019-04-26T14:55:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T18:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=70543"},"modified":"2019-04-26T14:56:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T18:56:41","slug":"the-key-to-bus-diversity-efforts-powerful-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2019\/04\/26\/the-key-to-bus-diversity-efforts-powerful-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Key to BU\u2019s Diversity Efforts? Powerful Allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

MED chair and ally: \u201cActions are immensely more powerful than words\u201d<\/h4>\n
\"Two
\u201cIf you are going to implement change,\u201d says Crystal Williams, BU\u2019s associate provost for diversity and inclusion, \u201cthe people who also need to be deeply engaged are the folks who have power in the organization.\u201d Photo courtesy of iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

David Coleman isn\u2019t black. He isn\u2019t gay. He isn\u2019t transgender or disabled. He is a white, gray-haired infectious disease physician, a Boston University Medical School professor and chair of medicine. He is also exactly the type of person Crystal Williams<\/a>, the University\u2019s first associate provost for diversity and inclusion, is seeking more of.<\/p>\n

Coleman<\/a>, in Williams\u2019 eyes, is an ally. That means that even though he may not identify personally with any underrepresented groups, such as African Americans or Asians or Latinos or members of the LGBTQ community, he is actively involved in working to ensure that BU is a place where all can thrive\u2014not only with words, but with actions. Williams is determined to build a community at BU of as many allies as possible across all three campuses\u2014holding regular lunches and providing training to help those in leadership positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you buy the argument that we should become more diverse and more welcoming for people of different backgrounds, with different political and personal views, we can\u2019t get there unless we all actively support it,\u201d says Coleman, who is also chairman of the Boston Medical Center department of medicine. \u201cIn our culture, despite our diversity, it also is very unwelcoming and hostile for certain groups. That won\u2019t get fixed, in my view, unless people in power, like me as a chair, see themselves as a leader in changing that dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with Human Resources, Williams cosponsors a group she calls the Inclusive Practitioners Cohort. They meet roughly every week for nine weeks with the aim of developing the necessary skills for people to become leaders in promoting greater diversity within their teams. \u201cThe hope is to begin to provide people with additional tools and information that they can take back into their units and areas of oversight,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Williams says that if one team of 40 people also has 6 people who are allies, \u201cI know that\u2019s one team that will get transformed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The term \u201cally\u201d is not new. But only in the last few years have people started to realize how important allies are in efforts to boost diversity and inclusion efforts in the workplace. In fact, some feel the word \u201cally\u201d is too weak and does not emphasize taking action, which is why other words, including \u201caccomplices\u201d and \u201ccompatriots,\u201d have been gaining momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are going to implement change,\u201d Williams says, \u201cthe people who also need to be deeply engaged are the folks who have power in the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big challenge is convincing people to overcome worries that they won\u2019t know what to say as an ally, and that one misstep could be misinterpreted and land them in trouble. \u201cWhat I hear from allies is, \u2018I don\u2019t know how to do it,\u2019 and they fear that if they do the wrong thing, they will get lambasted,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople who are vocal allies have worked through that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s been a very real concern for Carrie Preston<\/a>, Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Professor and director of the Kilachand Honors College, a fierce ally working with Williams. But it hasn\u2019t held her back.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Williams is determined to build a community at BU of as many allies as possible across all three campuses. Photo by Janice Checchio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think the worry on a certain level is crucial,\u201d Preston says. \u201cWe do need to be concerned we will say the wrong thing and cause harm unintentionally. Then be brave enough to wade into the work that needs to be done. And apologize if we said the wrong thing, even if it\u2019s unintentional. I think the worry is helpful. As long as it doesn\u2019t prevent people from doing the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

She agrees that more allies are critical for moving forward, because it\u2019s unfair that people of color or underrepresented minorities are supposed to somehow be the only ones to teach the lessons of life. \u201cFirst we are going to cause you harm, then we ask you to come teach us and comfort us?\u201d Preston asks. \u201cThat\u2019s not fair. People in positions of privilege have to be active in the teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a March article<\/a> in the publication Diverse: Issues in Higher Education<\/em> titled \u201cMoving from Ally to Accomplice: How Far Are You Willing to Go to Disrupt Racism in the Workplace?\u201d authors Kimberly Harden and Tai Harden-Moore write: \u201cIn terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion, ally is an empty buzzword. It takes more than support to make a difference. White people claim to support the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion; few, however, are courageous enough to put their own jobs on the line by speaking out against prejudice and discrimination in the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The #MeToo movement has shone a spotlight on the importance of allies and accomplices, as more people argue that the biggest group who can change how women are treated and respected are not other women\u2014but rather men in powerful positions, the male allies of #MeToo. \u201cWomen have been driving it,\u201d Williams says, \u201cbut male allies will be key to the movement, to really creating systemic change.\u201d<\/p>\n

At BU, much of the change started with the work of Jean Morrison, University provost, who handed off the baton to Williams and has remained active and supportive of her efforts and those of the Inclusive Practitioners Cohort.<\/p>\n

\u201cBU succeeds when we provide a setting where people of all backgrounds and cultures can find a home and thrive as members of a welcoming and vibrant academic community,\u201d Morrison says. \u201cWe have been thrilled by the work that Crystal has done so far to raise awareness, to spark important\u2014often challenging\u2014conversations, and to help build the alliances essential to push meaningful change. There are many miles of road ahead for us, to be sure, but we are heading in a positive direction and will be excited to report on our progress in the months and years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having that support was critical for Williams, who realized very soon after starting at BU in 2017 that to bring about serious change for underrepresented groups at an institution the size and scale of Boston University, with more than 30,000 students and 10,000 employees, she would need all the help she could get.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore attention is being given to allies\u2014not just the people who are brown or LGBTQ or living with disabilities, and it\u2019s particularly important that the allies are known and acknowledged,\u201d Williams says. \u201cAllies are people who are committed to creating more equitable and inclusive environments, but who may not be the key recipients or foci of that work.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says, for example, that there is a large group of faculty in STEM programs at BU who are white, \u201cbut they are committed to helping to diversify their departments. They are allies in that work.\u201d There are cisgender men who are allies of the LGBTQ community, she says, and want the environment to be more inclusive of that community.<\/p>\n

Preston, who is also a College of Arts & Sciences professor of English and of women\u2019s, gender, and sexuality studies, says she sees progress being made at BU\u2014slowly. \u201cWe are moving in the right direction, cautiously. But we have a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The underrepresented groups \u201care hoping we support them,\u201d Coleman says. \u201cBut we\u2019ve got to demonstrate it, to act it out. The actions are immensely more powerful than the words.\u201d<\/p>\n

This BU Today <\/em>story was written by Doug Most<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Coleman, MD, is exactly the type of person Crystal Williams, the University\u2019s first associate provost for diversity and inclusion, is seeking more of. Dr. Coleman, in Williams\u2019 eyes, is an ally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70547,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70543\/revisions\/70547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}