What does allyship mean?
It’s really a question. I was going to comment how the term sounds one-sided to me, decided to do a quick search and realized there’s some controversy to the idea. I’m from Brazil and we don’t have a term for that as far as I know, so there might be a linguistic component to the sentiment I have as well.
If I say someone is my ally, I’m automatically their ally. Right? We have a common cause, even if the specifics may differ. Or we have a single goal, mission, vision, desire, and so on. We are allies, we are together. Then we have this concept of ally that seems to exist to denote a separation. I’m an ally because I’m other. Or, I’m an ally because I don’t have the same experiences, therefore I can’t speak from the same place you stand.
The idea we have to understand we speak from different places is important, but drawing a line in the cause and putting allies to one side is weird. Let me put it this way. Instead of sounding like “understand your situation is different than my own”, it sounds more like “know your place”.
How do you feel about that? Am I missing something?
I'd say an ally is someone you have an alliance with, so someone with who you have agreed to pursue a common goal. So yeah, I'd say if you are someone's ally, they are also yours.
That differs somewhat from how it's used in the LGBT+ community, where it refers to non-LGBT+ supporters of LGBT+ rights.
I think i would relax your defintion slightly to two partys with compatible goals. For example, Japan and Germany were considered allies in ww2, but they did not have the same common goals.
Of course, this could be the oppressor class in me speaking, so maybe I am wrong :/
To me, an alliance speaks to shared goals. And while that is often used in in the military sense of "mutual defense", it has other uses. When used in a social justice context, "being an ally" means the person shares the goal of equal rights &c. for the community being oppressed, even though they themselves are not being oppressed in that way.
"I'm an ally" is the US way of saying "I'm part of the oppressor class but have exempted myself from criticism for my participation in the oppression."
You might be lying; you also might not understand what the person needs or wants, to the point that the actions you are taking or endorsing are harmful to them.