Season 2 Episode 2: Anti-Asian Bias and Effective Allyship

Diversity Matters with Oscar Holmes IV

Season 2 Episode 2

Episode Title:  Anti-Asian Bias & Effective Allyship

Guest: Ed Ng

 

Diversity Matters with Oscar Holmes IV is a podcast that explores all things diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) related. In each episode, Oscar and his guests have lively discussions around DEI topics, explore the latest research on the topic, and discuss the implications so that listeners will be more knowledgeable about the topics and be able to apply the insights to their lives.

 

Show Summary: Fighting for a cause is never easy. It requires courage and sacrifice amid pain, tears, and sometimes, betrayal. To make it a success, you have to be with the right people who have the same heart as you. But how would you know if you're fighting with the right ones?

 

In this episode, Dr. Ed Ng, the James, and Elizabeth Freeman Professor of Management at Bucknell University, tells us about Allyship's three parts; Personal Responsibility, Volunteerism, and True Intentions. For him, authentic Allyship gives you purpose in life and should not be done as a hobby or egoistic acts.

 

Showing up and listening to those who experience stress, trauma, and toxicity because of the emotional damage racism brings, e.g., the murder of George Floyd and the mass shootings, shows empathy for others and cultural humility, which is essential in being a sincere ally.

 

Important Links:

 

Microaggressions in Everyday Life Book

Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence

Dr. Ed Ng LinkedIn

 

3 Exceptional Highlights:

 

 

• I hope my allyship makes people feel worthy of all the things that I've been fortunate to enjoy and have access to education, economic opportunities, and a happy life. That's what allyship means to me.

 

• Being an ally requires personal sacrifice, not something we do out of ego or makes us feel good because we stood up for someone or something.
• It takes someone with power and influence, in other words, leaders, to do something that can make things better for others. We need more allies in leaders.

 

Show Highlights: 

 

What does being an ally mean to Ed Ng and why is it so important?

 

3:54 Dr. Ed Ng

 

• To me, allyship has three parts. First, of course, is taking on personal responsibility to help someone or a group of individuals who experience systemic discrimination so that they can be treated fairly and equitably, just like everybody else.

 

What skills or some qualities a person needs to be an effective ally?

 

8:20 Dr. Ed Ng

 

• There are no qualifications or skills you need to be an ally. Anybody can be an ally, as long as you have good intent. But I feel that there are certain qualities or attributes, or values that one should have to be a good ally.

 

The time he's been best at being an ally, and when he's fallen short of being one

 

20:57 Dr. Ed Ng

 

• I think this occurred last year when someone accused me of using my positional power to provide a voice to a group of scholars for a community who experienced intense trauma.

Has he experienced an increase in bias or violence?

 

34:12 Dr. Ed Ng

 

• Fortunately, because I'm in central PA, it's a very small community. I have not personally experienced any violence directed at me. But my parents live in Vancouver, and they have. I have Asian students who are fearful on campus; they don't want to go off-campus.

What can you do to be fair to the students who experience different stresses?

 

38: Dr. Ed Ng

 

• I sent an email to all the students in my college after the shootings. My message was really simple: I was available to speak to anyone that day, the next day, the next week, and so on. I wanted them to know that they can turn to someone, even if all they needed was somebody to talk to.

 

Call to Action:

Subscribe to Diversity Matters and get exclusive access to all episodes of Beyond the Mill, which is my live diversity dialogues talk show that I host on campus at Rutgers University-Camden. 

 

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