Barrier-Removing Allyship
Study yourself, yield the lead, and use your power to clear barriers
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 96%
Barrier-Removing Allyship starts by locating an area where you hold one-up power and selecting a group you want to support. Build independent understanding of its history, varied experiences, and current barriers rather than expecting affected people to provide all your education. Pair that study with self-examination: ask what your own group taught you, how those messages shaped your perspective, and where fear or defensiveness remains. Discuss those issues with peers from your own group. When engaging affected people, listen, yield, and let them lead the definition of what help is useful. Then use your access, credibility, or authority to remove a concrete barrier. Do not approach from pity, guilt, or a desire to save; the goal is to make room for people to bring their own capacity and power.
Origin
Myers develops the method while answering how non-Black supporters can contribute to Black Lives Matter without taking over or retreating into silence.
Core principles
- 01Allyship begins in an area where you hold one-up power
- 02Empathy is more useful than pity or guilt
- 03Affected people lead because they understand the barriers directly
- 04Self-study reduces the burden placed on marginalized people
- 05The ally's job is to remove obstacles, not rescue people
How to run it
- 1
Locate your leverage
Choose a group and context where you possess relevant access, credibility, authority, or representation. Define the power you can actually use.
Pro tip Connect the choice to your one-up position rather than to abstract sympathy.
- 2
Do independent study
Learn the group's history, varied lived experiences, and current barriers through books, films, courses, and credible community sources. Avoid treating the group as a monolith.
Pro tip Begin with accessible material before asking someone to explain foundational issues personally.
Watch out Education that ignores internal diversity can replace one stereotype with another.
- 3
Examine your formation
Ask what you learned about your own identity and the other group, when you learned it, and who delivered the message. Identify which inherited ideas no longer sit right with you.
Pro tip Write down the earliest specific messages you remember.
- 4
Process with peers
Talk with people in your own group about uncertainty, fear, frustration, and effective behavior. Build capacity without making marginalized colleagues carry all of that emotional work.
Watch out Do not use peer discussion as a substitute for listening to affected people.
- 5
Yield and listen
When affected people describe their experience, let them define the problem and useful support. Pull back from the dominant habit of proposing solutions immediately.
Pro tip Ask what support would help before offering a plan.
Watch out Trying to tell people how to navigate their own identity reproduces the power imbalance.
- 6
Remove a barrier
Use your leverage to change access, interrupt exclusion, open an opportunity, or challenge a harmful norm. Keep the action focused on the affected people's freedom and capacity.
Pro tip Choose an observable obstacle that your role can influence now.
Watch out Do not center your feelings or seek praise for the intervention.
In the wild
An ally learns the history and complexity of a marginalized group's experience, examines assumptions formed within their own dominant group, and asks affected colleagues what barrier matters most. Instead of telling them how to respond, the ally uses managerial access to change the process creating the obstacle.
→ Support becomes a concrete change led by the people closest to the problem rather than a rescue performance.
Common mistakes
Trying to save people
A rescue posture assumes inadequacy and sidelines the group's own power. Follow their lead and focus on removing the barrier.
Centering ally emotions
Guilt, fear, and distress can consume the space needed for affected people to speak. Process those emotions without making them the focus of support.
Is it for you?
Best for
People who want to support a marginalized group but are uncertain how to contribute responsibly.
Not ideal for
Performative support aimed mainly at proving the ally's goodness or gaining visibility.
From the transcript
“find the group that you want to help and then let them lead you”
“we don't need you saving we just need you to move the barriers out of the way”
“you got a lot of work to do with yourself first”
From the episode
YAPClassic: Vernā Myers on Overcoming Bias and Promoting Equity
YAPClassic