Skin Deep: Unpacking White Privilege, White Guilt, and Allyship with Lily Gies

The Bottom Line: Weaponize your white privilege to dismantle systemic racism. In this episode, Janah is joined by Lily Gies, a senior at Walter Payton, in a conversation about allyship and activism. When discussing race, empathy and honesty are essential. However, the inability to interrogate one’s implicit bias and under systemic issues from outside perspectives prevents fruitful conversations from occurring. In this discussion, Lily and Janah discuss the ways white privilege, white guilt, and internal bias not only make discussions about race more difficult but sustain and uphold cycles of violence against people of color and water down movements. The two unpack why it is difficult for white people to recognize their bias and acknowledge the ways they are complicit in perpetuating structural issues. Lily and Janah explain what effective activism looks like and how white people can use their position in society to work with people of color to advance liberation movements.