Kwanzaa for White Allies, Day 7: Maintaining Your Faith in the Work

The final day of Kwanzaa encourages you to reconnect with you deep motivations and beliefs.

The theme of Day 7 of Kwanzaa is Imani, which roughly translates to “faith.” This issue is most relevant to two of the issues that allies need to consistently reflect upon — how to sustain your own lifelong allyship journey and your ability to be persuasive to racism skeptics. (The other key issues are: your support of communities of color and your work to grow the anti-racism ally community).

In the literature on Kwanzaa, Imani is purposely framed as the capstone to the week of celebration and reflection. The focus of the day is to remind us of the importance of consistently reconnecting with a deep belief and motivation that lies beneath our love of others and your commitment to community improvement.

As someone who coaches white allies, I think there are at least three common ways that allies sometimes lose faith in their own ally work that might be shored up by tapping into the way that Imani is articulated in Kwanzaa.

Believing that Your Work is Vital to the Movement

A critical aspect of faith in your work as an ally is the idea that anti-racist activity by white folks is a…