Reflection 10: Story of Collaboration
This week’s theme is “storytelling differently.” How can we, as storytellers ourselves and potential future journalists, change the narrative?
We watched An American Story: Race Amity and the Other Tradition in class. The focus of the documentary is to change the public discourse on race from the lens of blame, grievance and rejection to the lens of amity, collaboration, access and equity.
The film shares stories of allies in a historical context. It highlights friendships and collaborations in the past that inspire and model good behavior to us today.
The class discussion made me consider who I know who exemplifies the concepts of amity or collaboration. The person who first came to mind is my best friend, Kelsi Karpinski (she/they).
Karpinski is a Michigan State University senior pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in English with a creative writing concentration and minors in sociology and women's and gender studies. They hope to follow with a career in authorship and publishing.
Kelsi Karpinski is a student, writer and passionate
social justice advocate. (Marci Curtis)
As a storyteller herself and a social justice advocate, I decided to get their thoughts on allyship. Here’s our conversation:
SG: How do you illustrate the concepts of amity and collaboration (in the context of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, nationality and ability)?
KK: I try to be as informed as I can be on everything. I don’t speak on things that I don’t understand or especially things that I haven’t been able to research. I try to listen a lot because I know that a lot of those intersections that you mentioned are things that I’m not in the minority group of, and so it’s things that I can’t really speak for, and so I try to listen to people’s experiences and be open-minded.
SG: How do you understand and go about allyship?
KK: My understanding of allyship is being aware of the privilege that I have and understanding what I can speak on and what I can’t, and also using my privilege when I can to speak about things that need to be talked about.
SG: How do you educate yourself?
KK: I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve been able to choose areas of study where I get to take a lot of classes in diversity and social justice related topics, so a lot of my education does come from there. And then just doing research on my own. I’ve been trying to read a little more theory (but I’m not good at reading theory) and just reading the news and being as informed on current events as I can be.
SG: What do you think is most important to keep in mind when trying to be a good ally?
KK: I think it’s most important to remember that everyone has their moments where they’re wrong about something and other people correcting you isn’t necessarily attacking you. It’s likely just people trying to help you out and hold you accountable for the things that you say.
And so just being open to being corrected and learning always and not getting defensive if people tell you that you’re coming from like, because if you're someone that cares about this stuff, it’s likely that it’s coming from a place that’s not meant to hurt, but often intention doesn't really change the effect.